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Background
Why
a Global Day for Handwashing with Soap?
Handwashing with soap is the most effective and
inexpensive way to prevent diarrheal and acute
respiratory infections, which take the lives of
millions of children in developing countries every
year. Together, they are responsible for the majority
of all child deaths. Yet, despite its lifesaving
potential, handwashing with soap is seldom practiced
and difficult to promote.
The challenge is to transform handwashing with soap
from an abstract good idea into an automatic behavior
performed in homes, schools, and communities
worldwide. Turning handwashing with soap before eating
and after using the toilet into an ingrained habit
could save more lives than any single vaccine or
medical intervention, cutting deaths from diarrhea by
almost half and deaths from acute respiratory
infections by one-quarter. A vast change in
handwashing behavior is critical to meeting the
Millennium Development Goal of reducing deaths among
children under the age of five by two-thirds by 2015.
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