Monday, November 15, 2010

[EQ] Hygiene, Sanitation, and Water: Forgotten Foundations of Health

Hygiene, Sanitation, and Water: Forgotten Foundations of Health

PLoS Med 7(11): e1000367. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000367
Published November 9, 2010

Available online at: http://bit.ly/aMKOOy  

This is the introductory article in a four-part PLoS Medicine series on water and sanitation.

Globally, around 2.4 million deaths (4.2% of all deaths) [1] could be prevented annually if everyone practised appropriate hygiene and had good, reliable sanitation and drinking water. These deaths are mostly of children in developing countries from diarrhoea and subsequent malnutrition, and from other diseases attributable to malnutrition.

How is an opportunity to prevent so many deaths (and 6.6% of the global burden of disease in terms of disability adjusted life years or DALYs [1]) failing to attract the attention of the international public health community?

In this introductory paper to the PLoS Medicine series on water and sanitation, we develop the idea that these basic needs are the forgotten foundations of health. ..”

A Massive Disease Burden Is Associated with Deficient Hygiene, Sanitation, and Water Supply

While rarely discussed alongside the ‘‘big three’’ attention-seekers of the international public health community—HIV/ AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria—one disease alone kills more young children each year than all three combined. It is  diarrhoea [2], and the key to its control is hygiene, sanitation, and water (HSW)…..”

 

Second article:

 

Water Supply and Health at: http://bit.ly/93LEZR

Paul R. Hunter1*, Alan M. MacDonald2, Richard C. Carter3
1 School of Medicine, Health Policy and Practice, University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom,
2 British Geological Survey, Edinburgh, United Kingdom,
3 WaterAid, London, United Kingdom



“….As one article in a four-part PLoS Medicine series on water and sanitation, Paul Hunter and colleagues argue that much more effort is needed to improve access to safe and sustainable water supplies….”

 

 

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