Proper hand washing pivotal to preventing deadly diseases: UNICEF

As the world prepares to mark global hand washing day, the UN children's fund (UNICEF) urged children, families and communities across the world to make hand washing with soap a priority to prevent the onset of potentially fatal diseases.

"Every year, 1.4 million children are dying from largely preventable diseases like pneumonia and diarrhea," UNICEF's global head of water, sanitation and hygiene Sanjay Wijesekera said in a statement.

"These are staggering numbers, but they could be greatly reduced by working with children and families to adopt a very straightforward solution: hand washing," he added.

According to estimates, hand washing with soap before meals and after going to the toilet could reduce the risk of contracting diarrheal infections by 40 percent, with evidence also suggesting that proper hand washing could reduce the pneumonia infection rate among children by around 25 percent.

Some 300,000 children under the age of five died from diarrhea-related infections in 2015.

Proper hand washing practices also contributes to higher school attendance rates since fewer children are forced to stay at home because of largely preventable diseases.

"Hand washing just makes sense as a frontline preventive measure to keep children safe from disease. It's simple, cost effective and a proven lifesaver," Wijesekera explained.

According to data released by UNICEF, only 20 percent of the world's population washes their hands after using the toilet, a worrying statistic given that 1 gram of feces contains 100 million bacteria.

Celebrated annually on Oct. 15, global hand washing day was founded by the Global Public-Private Partnership for Handwashing, and is an opportunity to design, test, and replicate creative ways to encourage people to wash their hands with soap at critical times. Endit