World Handwashing Day (15/10)

«Wash your hands before eating!» — posters with such calls hung in many Soviet canteens, reminding visitors of the necessary ritual of pre-lunch hygiene. Today there are no such posters anymore, but the call to «wash your hands» sounds on a more global scale.

The UN Children's Fund officially declared October 15 as World Handwashing Day, which was first held in 2008 as part of the UN General Assembly's Year of Sanitation. Then more than 120 million children around the world washed their hands with soap in more than 70 countries.

It would seem that the question of whether washing one’s own hands — is a personal matter for a person, and everyone can decide it due to their cleanliness and upbringing. On the other hand, as experts from the UN and the World Health Organization note, the problem of unwashed hands has catastrophic consequences when viewed on a global scale.

Through unwashed hands, pathogens of such terrible diseases as cholera, viral pneumonia, hepatitis, influenza and ARVI enter the human body. «Dirty hands» is one of the main causes of high infant mortality in Asia and Africa, as irregular hand washing can cause diseases such as cholera, diphtheria, pneumonia, hepatitis, flu and common colds, conjunctivitis, scabies, and various fungal diseases. According to UNICEF, five thousand children die every day from diarrhea alone, also called dirty hands «. Half of these deaths could have been avoided if they had washed their hands thoroughly with soap before eating and after using the toilet.

Moreover, the transmission of pathogens is carried out both directly, for example, through a simple handshake, and indirectly, through contaminated surfaces, soft toys and household appliances. Children must understand that dirt, which occurs on almost all surrounding objects (pencils, pens, books, toys, doorknobs, phones, etc.), is often invisible to the eyes. With unwashed hands, this dirt enters the body through the mouth, and with it various diseases are transmitted from a sick person to a healthy one.

Therefore, such a simple hygiene procedure as regular hand washing can save and is saving thousands of children's lives every day. It not only helps prevent the body from becoming infected with harmful viruses and infections, but also makes people’s lives more comfortable, pleasant and safe.

The goal of large-scale actions organized on this day with the support of the UN around the world (particular attention is paid to the countries of Asia, Africa and South America), — to draw public attention to the need for this simple but very important hygiene procedure as a key approach to the prevention of many diseases, and the motto of the Day — « Clean hands save lives».

In many countries, on Handwashing Day, national hygiene campaigns are launched with the help of the media, and information brochures are distributed to schoolchildren. It can’t do without unique records. Thus, several years ago, on October 15, residents of Bangladesh held a grandiose — campaign across the country, simultaneously washing the hands of 53 thousand people.

In Russia, this day has not yet become so widespread. However, remembering this holiday, it would be useful for parents to tell their children about the reasons for its occurrence and why it is necessary to wash their hands.

And there is no need to say how relevant this topic has been in the last few years as part of the fight against the coronavirus pandemic...



Postcard «October 15 — World Handwashing Day»

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