2015 Hand Washing Day: PSN advocates Hand washing to prevent Childhood killer diseases.
As Nigeria joins the World to mark this year’s Global Hand Washing Day, a Civil Society Group, the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria- Partnership for Advocacy in Child and Family Health has advocated regular hand washing with soap and water to check spread of diseases.
A statement by Program Director, Strategy of the group, Remi Adeseun in Abuja said the call became necessary as millions of children under the age of 5 die from diarrhoeal diseases and pneumonia which could be easily prevented by Hand washing with soap and water.
The statement said “In Nigeria almost 400,000, (Diarrhoea- 201,368 Pneumonia: 177,212) under the age of 5 years die from these preventable diseases yearly. Pneumonia, a major ARI, is the number one cause of mortality among children under five years old, taking the life of an estimated 1.8 million children per year. Diarrhoea and pneumonia together account for almost 3.5 million child deaths annually.
Hand washing with soap is estimated to reduce incidents of diarrhoea by 30% and respiratory infections by 21% in children under the age of five years”.
It added that although people clean their hands with only water which does not effectively remove germs, very few use soap to wash their hands.
The statement therefore urged Nigerians to imbibe the habit of hand washing with soap, before eating and after using the toilet, thereby dramatically cutting the number of young children who get sick.
It said the habit if imbibed, is projected to save more lives than any single vaccine or medical intervention, cutting deaths from diarrhoea by almost half and deaths from acute respiratory infections by one-quarter3.
Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) is the implementing Civil Society Organization (CSO) for "Partnership for Advocacy in Child and Family Health" (PACFaH), focusing on improving health outcomes for Childhood Pneumonia and Diarrhoea in Nigeria (with the use of Amoxicillin dispersible tablet and Zinc/lo-ORS co-pack as first-line treatment respectively).