“ACCORDING to results from the Hygiene Promotion and Illness Reduction study, children aged five years or under experienced significantly fewer respiratory, gastrointestinal, and skin diseases when their families participated in intensive hygiene education plus the use of hygiene products.
The results of the three year study, which was conducted in impoverished urban communities in South Africa and presented during the 13th International Congress on Infectious Diseases (ICID) held in Kuala Lumpur recently, also show that hygiene education alone offers meaningful improvements in illness reduction compared to no education at the start of the study.
However when effective hygiene products (antibacterial soap, surface cleanser/disinfectant, and skin antiseptic) were used in addition to education, an even greater reduction in the risk of illness was noted”.
[…]
Prof. Eugene Cole
“The study was developed and conducted under the guidance of the Health and Hygiene Promotion Partnership (HPP), a community-based project founded in 2005 by cooperation between Reckitt Benckiser Inc and Brigham Young University [lead investigator Dr Eugene Cole], with members of the participating housing communities, under the approval of the Cape Town City Health Department”.
References:
1. Cole E, Hawkley M, Rubino J, McCue K, Crookston B, and Dixon J. Comprehensive family hygiene promotion in peri-urban Cape Town: Gastrointestinal and skin disease reduction in children under five. 13th ICID; Read abstract no 68.012.
2. Cole E, Crookston B, Rubino J, McCue K, Hawkley M, and Dixon J. Comprehensive family hygiene promotion in peri-urban Cape Town: Reduction of respiratory illness in children under five. 13th ICID; Read abstract no 68.030
Read more: The Star Online (Malaysia), 06 July 2008
See also: Aeysha Kassiem, How to cut infection, Cape Times / IOL, 22 Jul 2008
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