HANDWASHING: THE MOST EFFECTIVE WEAPON AGAINST INFECTIONS

Today, October 15 is the global handwashing day. This day is set aside annually to promote awareness on the importance of hand washing with soap or ash.

WHY HAND WASHING

Hand washing with soap is one of the most important public health interventions in the world. According to global public – private partnership for handwashing,  Every year, 1.7 million children do not live to celebrate their fifth birthday because of diarrhea and pneumonia. Handwashing with soap is among the most effective and inexpensive ways to prevent these diseases. This simple behavior can save lives, cutting diarrhea by almost one-half and acute respiratory infections by nearly one-quarter. Handwashing with soap impacts not just health and nutrition, but also education, economics, and equity.

Handwashing with soap improves health and saves lives by preventing infections. Many infections start when hands are contaminated with disease-causing bacteria and viruses. This can happen after using the toilet, changing a child’s diaper, coughing, sneezing, touching other people’s hands, and touching other contaminated surfaces. A single gram of human feces can contain 10 million viruses and one million bacteria, and infant feces are particularly pathogenic. Handwashing with soap works by removing bacteria and viruses from hands before they get a chance to cause infections or spread to other people. This is why cleaning hands with soap, particularly after contact with fecal material from using the toilet or cleaning a child’s bottom, is so important.

When hands are contaminated with disease-causing bacteria and viruses, these pathogens can enter the body or pass from person-to-person. Once these bacteria and viruses enter the body, they can cause a wide range of infections.

Two major illnesses that are transmitted on the hands are diarrhea and pneumonia. Together, diarrhea and pneumonia kill an estimated 1.7 million children every year. Many of these deaths can be prevented by handwashing with soap. Other infections that handwashing with soap can help prevent include Ebola, skin and eye infections; intestinal worms, and healthcare-associated infections.

Diarrhea

Each day 2,195 children die from diarrhea. This makes it one of the top killers of children under the age of five globally. Almost all causes of childhood diarrhea are caused by infections, which means that most of these deaths are entirely preventable. One of the most effective ways of preventing diarrhea is by handwashing with soap. In fact, a review of more than 40 studies found that handwashing with soap can prevent four out of every 10 cases of diarrhea. Children living in households where there is active handwashing promotion and available soap have half the rates of diarrhea compared to children without these.

Diarrheal diseases are often described as water-related but should more accurately be known as excreta-related, as the bacteria and viruses (germs) that cause diarrhea come from fecal matter (poo). These germs make people ill when they enter the mouth via hands that have been in contact with feces, contaminated drinking water, unwashed raw food, unwashed utensils, or smears on clothes. Handwashing with soap breaks this cycle.

Pneumonia and Acute Respiratory Infections

Acute respiratory infections like pneumonia are another leading cause of death in children under the age of five. Handwashing reduces the rate of respiratory infections in two ways: by removing respiratory pathogens found on hands and surfaces and by removing other pathogens, such as viruses that affect the gut, found to cause both diarrhea and respiratory symptoms. Evidence suggests that washing hands with soap after defecation and before eating could cut the respiratory infection rate by about 21-25 percent. However, the full effect might turn out to be even bigger. For example, a study in Pakistan found that handwashing with soap reduced the number of pneumonia related infections in children under the age of five by more than 50 percent.

Proper handwashing helps prevent the spread of cold and flu by removing viruses that get onto hands from coughs and sneezes. This is particularly important during flu season. Materials such as posters that can be used to promote good hand hygiene during peak seasons of respiratory illness or flu transmission can be found at this link.

Ebola

Ebola virus disease is a severe and often fatal acute viral disease that can spread from animal to human or from human to human, both through direct contact with an infected person or animal’s bodily fluids and through contact with surfaces that have been contaminated with these infected bodily fluids. Handwashing with soap is an important component of Ebola infection protection.

Given the impact of Ebola and the role of handwashing, the PPPHW has developed an Ebola Key Topics page. Additional information about Ebola is available on this World Health Organization factsheet and FAQs, as well as the WHO/UNICEF Ebola and water, sanitation, and hygiene questions and answers page.

Skin & Eye Infections

Though not as extensive and robust as the research evidence for diarrheal disease and respiratory infections, studies have shown that handwashing with soap reduces the incidence of skin diseases and eye infections like trachoma.

Intestinal Worms

While more evidence is needed, existing research shows that handwashing with soap reduces the incidence of intestinal worms, especially ascariasis and trichuriasis.

Healthcare-Associated Infections

Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) affect 15 out of every 100 patients during a hospital stay; the rate is even higher in intensive care units, in low-resource settings, and for new-borns. HAIs impact hundreds of millions of patients every year. They can cause short-term illness, long-term disability, and death. They also contribute to longer hospital stays, antibiotic resistance, and a massive financial impact for patients, families, and entire health care systems. Most HAIs can be prevented through good hand hygiene—cleaning hands at the right times and in the right way, either by handwashing with soap or utilizing alcohol-based hand rubs. Good hand hygiene in healthcare has saved millions of lives, but currently only about 40 percent of health workers globally practice good hand hygiene.

Have additional questions about handwashing with soap? click here to ask an expert.

Hand Washing and Nutrition

Good nutrition is about more than access to nutritious foods: it is also about the body’s ability to absorb the nutrients in the food a person consumes, and this ability can be affected by germs carried on a person’s hands.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 50 percent of child undernutrition cases are due to repeated diarrhea and intestinal infections caused by poor sanitation and hygiene conditions or lack of safe water. Handwashing with soap is a critical determinant for achieving and maintaining good nutrition, and this healthy behavior plays an important part in preventing micronutrient deficiencies, stunting, wasting, and deaths.

Stunting, or low height for age, is caused by long-term insufficient nutrient intake and frequent infections in early childhood, resulting in delayed motor development, impaired cognitive function, and reduced school performance. Nearly one third of children under the age of five in low income countries are stunted.

Wasting, or low weight for height, is caused by acute insufficient nutrient intake and/or disease, and is a strong predictor of mortality among children under the age of five.

If disease-causing bacteria, viruses, or parasites on a person’s hands enter their mouth, they can travel down to the gut where they may damage the body’s ability to use nutrients from food. The likely ways that these germs can do this are by directly consuming nutrients before the body can use them and by damaging the intestinal lining (this is referred to as environmental enteropathy). Environmental enteropathy includes flattening out parts of the (villus blunting), which reduces places where nutrients can be absorbed into the body. As such, nutrients that pass through the gut but fail to be absorbed can be lost in diarrhea. These pathogens can also irritate the gut, which can damage its barrier functions, make it easier for toxins to get inside the body, and cause chronic inflammation, which can further damage the gut and use up nutrients in the process.

Diarrhea and undernutrition can become a vicious cycle.

Children are susceptible to infection by bacteria and viruses in fecal matter (poo) that cause diarrhea. When children get diarrhea, they (a) often eat less food, and (b) have a reduced ability to absorb and benefit from nutrients in the food they do eat, contributing to the development of under-nutrition. When children are undernourished, they become more susceptible to developing diarrhea when they come into contact with the bacteria and viruses in fecal matter. And so the cycle goes around again.

Handwashing breaks the vicious cycle of diarrhea and undernutrition.

Good handwashing with soap can prevent nearly half of all cases of childhood diarrhea. It is also estimated that drinking clean water and handwashing with soap can reduce the loss of nutrients through diarrhea and reducing stunting in children under the age of five by up to 15 percent, giving children a better chance of maintaining good nutrition and growing up to thrive.

Given the important role of handwashing in nutrition, the PPPHW helped co-found the Clean, Fed & Nurtured Community of Practice  which works to explore and promote the integration of WASH, nutrition, and early childhood development in the 0-3 age range. We also provide a number of resources relating to the integration of nutrition and handwashing in our resources section.

Adopted from Global public – private partnership for handwashing.

Compiled by 
FCS aid4Life Directorate
National Headquaters, Jos
Nigeria
 

WHY AM I IN THE GAME?

When we were growing up, street football is one thing I enjoyed the most. Many young people who have this privilege understand what I’m talking about. One of those times while we were playing the football, a young man came into the game and all he was doing was to “play rough” that is trying to hit and injure somebody. It became so glary at the point he had the opportunity to score a goal he left the ball and went to hit the attacker on the leg. Others became angry with him and decided to question why, then he made it clear that he is neither in the game to win nor to train but to retaliate the wrong done him the previous day.

I know a student who doesn’t give time to his books, he is always absent from the class and the day he decides to come he will be late. Being curious, I dare to ask him why he is behaving that way and he told me that he is not in the school to attain academic excellence but just to get a certificate irrespective the kind of result. He said his uncle who is a top military man has already promised him that once he can get a university certificate he will be enrolled into the army.

The singular most important factor that influence and determine peoples’ action in life is the main reason and motive behind the action.

You need to clearly and constantly ask yourself this question – why am I in the game? It is until you can correctly answer this question, you will continue to live your life and destiny at the mercy of others.

 By the special grace of God, people no longer directly or indirectly dictate for me what to do with my life; this is because I realized the purpose of my existence early enough. I was able to clearly define why I am in the game of life.

Somebody without “conc.” Reason for existence is a man without a goal and without a definite goal you cannot achieve anything meaningful in life. Goal gives you focus, which enhance your productivity by preventing you from wasting your precious time and energy on ‘irrelevances’. It takes a man who knows why he is in the game to understand what distractions are and stand his ground to resist them.

The truth is, in life they are so many things that calls for your attention, but only few of them are useful and relevant to your divine purpose. Knowing why you are in the game however will help you discover this few relevance and discards the irrelevance.

It is only the man who doesn’t know what he wants to buy before going to the market that will become confuse on reaching the market. Life is like a market place, there are so many products and goods that are offered for sale, but you don’t need all of them. No rich man no matter how wealthy he is will go to the market to buy everything- that will be insanity. He will only buy what he needs and relevant to him at that time.

But it is unfortunate that so many people cannot tell what they need or rather they become confused in this market of life, because the purpose of their existence is not well defined.

Brother!  you don’t shoot to set a target but you set a target before you shoot. That’s what great men do. Life has a lot to offer, but it takes a man that understands the purpose for his existence to wisely select those things that are relevant to him.

When you don’t have a definite focus in life, you can’t but to accept everything that comes your way. For a man without a definite destination, everywhere is a destination. May be the reason you are not yet fulfilled internally is because, you don’t even know what you want. Friend my I tell you that the first step to getting what you want is to know what you want. You need to sit down and calculate, take time to ask your self- why am I in the game. It is the number one question great men always ask themselves. And mind you, greatness does not equal riches, neither does riches equal greatness.

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DARE TO BE DIFFERENT

The Meaning of “Dare to Be Different”

Bulus has three friends –Emeka, Sule and Adams.  Bulus’ friends have girls friends and usually sneak out of the school to attend party with them.  Bulus was worried about his friends who return to tell him the story of their parties and how they enjoy sex with their girlfriends.  His friends keep persuading him to have a girlfriend but he refuses because he wants to keep himself pure until he marries.

One day, Bulus was alone meditating over what his friends used to tell him.  Patrick his schoolmate came to him and asked why he was alone looking worried.   He could not hide his feeling and so told him all his worries.  “I want to keep myself pure and preserve my virginity until I marry,” Bulus told Patrick.

Patrick also told him that he has not had sex either, and that abstinence is his own decision too.

Hints: The statement, “Dare to be different”, is a call to be bold or confident to maintain your belief when others differ in opinion.  It is a call for courage to say ‘No’ based on personal conviction when others say ‘Yes’.  Bulus was different because he wanted to maintain his virginity until he got married. You too can choose to be different. Sometimes the deception is that you are made to believe “You are the only one who is not …” But from Patrick’s response, Bulus is not alone. Most of the time, there are others who have the same values as we do.

2. How to say ‘No’ and ‘Yes’

Sometimes people try to persuade us to do what they are doing or to go where they are going.  It is not always easy to say ‘No’, especially if those people are stronger or more popular.  It is even harder to say ‘No’ if the people we love tell us to do something that we are not sure about.

How do we say ‘No’ without losing our friends?

Be confident

Stand up for your rights without putting down the right of others.

Say something positive e.g. “I am glad you’re my friend, but…”

Say No and mean it. “I’m NOT going there today, maybe next time.”

Suggest doing something else instead e.g. “Let’s go and play soccer”.

When you stand up for your personal rights without putting down the rights of others, then you will be able to say ‘No’ without feeling guilty; disagree without becoming angry; ask for help when you need it.  As a result, you will feel better about yourself and have more honest friends and relationships.

God is your helper and friend.  He can help you to stand up for what is right and to be different.  If you ‘Sandwich’ your “No” between two positives, you can keep the friendship without doing something that you feel is not right.  Lets’ practice saying “No” to what is wrong and ‘Yes’ to what is righ

Score Point:

Deut. 23:2, Prov. 1:10, Tit. 2:11

Do not follow the multitude to do evil.

When sinners entice you, consent not. 

You have the power within you to say NO.

Culled from FCS Life skills Training Manual.

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UNDERSTANDING YOURSELF AS A TEENAGER OR YOUNG ADULT

Who is a Teenager/Young Adult?

“A teen-ager is a ‘between ager’ - one who is between childhood and adulthood”. Teen-age is a transition between two worlds – the world of children and the world of adults.   James Dobson, an American Christian psychologist describes this period as a period of “turbulent voyage, where you leave the safe harbour of childhood to enter into the open sea of adulthood.”

The age range of teenagers/young adult covers between 11-22 years approximately

Stages of Teen-age Life:

Ideally the teen years ought to refer to ages thirteen to nineteen only.  But due to differences in individual growth and development, we cannot neatly compartmentalise it so.  Therefore we will be looking at the teen-age life in three stages, each with its own characteristics.

Stage 1

(11-14 years old) Homogenous Stage:  This is the stage where you find it easier relating to members of the same sex (gender) than the opposite sex.  These years mark the onset of puberty.  Gangs and cliques are formed at this point with strong loyalty to group values and norms. Sociologists tell us that this loyalty is very important for your development. The concept of a loyalty that you acquire during this time of life is of immense importance later in life.  At this stage, you (especially boys) tend to hero-worship those whom you admire

Stage 2

(15-16 years old) Transitional Stage: At this stage, your attention shifts to the opposite sex.  You want someone to share your fears, anxieties and problems with.  This makes you get close to the one that suddenly becomes your intimate friend.  Many will become very moody and sometimes want to stay alone because they find it difficult to cope with the very powerful sexual desires arising from these new intimacies.  Yet, there is a third stage.

Stage 3

(17-22 years old).  Heterosexual Stage: This is the peak of the teen-age era.  Here, your sexual curiosity and desire to be attracted to the opposite sex have become heightened.  Some fall quickly into promiscuous habits by experimenting the use of their vital organs.  As one boy said, “they begin to charge their batteries before they are ready for use.”

Stage 4

Some others may begin to flirt around boys or girls looking for qualities in a partner of the opposite sex.  By the age of 17 years, you may begin to think of critical life decisions like marriage.  Yet your life experiences may be limited. Hence the need for godly counsel and practice of Christian principles that will help you in your overall growth and development.

Growth and Development in Teens: Growth is a characteristic of living things. In humans its various aspects include physical, intellectual, social, spiritual/moral and emotional. Let us look at each aspect briefly.

Physical Growth: The teen or adolescent period is a time of rapid physical changes and growth in height.  Hairs begin to grow under your armpits and your pubic region.  Girls have their first experience of the “monthly circle” usually called menstruation.  Boys develop muscles, become stronger, and have deepened voices and larger or mature sexual organs.  The girls have their breasts develop.  These changes make the teen-ager more sexually aware.  There is interest in and infatuation for the opposite sex. Hence teenagers fall in and out of love often.  Many members of both sexes usually have problems with spots, pimples, and acne at this time.  Because your physical appearance means much to you now, you may sometimes feel inferior, ugly, unattractive, or even depressed.  Some may try to compensate for the feeling of insecurity or lack of self-esteem with a show of bravado, aggression or comic naughtiness (playing the clown).

Intellectual Growth: Here you begin to fully develop the ability to think in abstract terms and to tackle philosophical posers or questions. The emphasis on academic performance/excellence generates tension in most teenagers. In fact the fear of failure is often one great cause of failure in the adolescent.  Also, because you are in search of answers, your family, school system, church, T.V, radio or peer group influences your general thinking. It is therefore important that you mind what you watch, read or listen to.

Social Development:  We live in a society with other people around us; and sometimes we experience the pressure to conform to them.  This pressure is much stronger in the teen-age years than at any other time in our lives.  The reason is that in the teen-age years, we try to behave or act like the others in dressing, habits, speech or whatever is in vogue.  To be different then can mean unpopularity or even make us ashamed of ourselves. This is the cause of teen-age conformity or compromise. But, you must learn to be yourself, and firm in uprightness!

Spiritual/Moral Development: As a teen-ager who was created in God’s image, you can enjoy a relationship with God. This relationship makes you different from the animals and other creatures on earth. We learn very early in life about God, the Creator that we all have to relate with. Our knowledge of God and our duty to Him constitutes our spiritual development.  Our moral development is the ability to consider the immediate and long-term consequences of our actions as they affect others. The challenge we face in our spiritual and moral development is the need to make friends with people who share the same values with us and to have the courage to stand out different from wrong influences.

Coping with the Changes:

As we have seen, the changes in teenagers come with the urge for sexual stimulation or expression. Therefore the need to remain chaste, pure and undefiled in the flesh is very paramount for a Christian youth. How then can you cope with sexual pressures?

Hint:

Take time to meditate regularly on the word of God and always pray.

Keep your mind clean. 

Replace sexual thoughts with godly and pure thoughts.

Do not stay alone in seclusion with someone you are already becoming emotionally attached to.  It makes you vulnerable. It is easier to avoid sexual temptation than to resist it under intense pressure or burning passion.

Have a good friend of the same sex to always talk and pray with

Be quick to confess your sin and repent truly before God.  

Spiritual Foundation: You are fearfully and wonderfully made in God’s own image.  For every temptation that comes your way, God is able to provide you a way of escape.  Know therefore that you are the temple of the Holy Spirit.  Do not defile yourself in any circumstances  (Psa. 139:14; Gen. 1:27; 1 Cor. 10:13; 1 Cor. 3:16-17).

Culled from FCS Life skills Training Manual.

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