A Manual on Hygiene Promotion – Technical Guidelines Series

INTRODUCTION
New Ways of Promoting Safe Hygiene

Why hygiene?
Diarrhoea is one of the top three killer diseases in developing countries, claiming the lives of more than three million children a year. Improvements in water supply and sanitation in the last 20 years have helped to cut the incidence of diarrhoea. But if these technologies have had an impact on health, it is because they make better hygiene possible.

Whether modern facilities are available or not, the best way to protect a child from diarrhoeal diseases is to keep the child’s living space free of the microbes that cause diarrhoea. That means adopting a number of safe hygiene practices in and around the home.