Diarrhoea
Diarrhoea is defined as having loose or watery stools at least three times per day, or more frequently than normal for an individual. Though most episodes of childhood diarrhoea are mild, acute cases can lead to significant fluid loss and dehydration, which may result in death or other severe consequences if fluids are not replaced at the first sign of diarrhoea.
After pneumonia diarrhoea is the second leading cause of death among children under 5, it kills more young children than AIDS, malaria and measles combined, one in 5 children (1.5 million a year). Tackling diarrhoea is one of the major challenges for the Millennium Development Goal 4: reduction of child mortality is to be achieved.
What causes diarrhoea?
Diarrhoea is a common symptom of gastrointestinal infections caused by a wide range of germs that are most commonly transmitted from the stool of one person to the mouth of another. This may follow a direct or indirect route (stool to hand, hand to water or food, then to mouth).
An individual’s ability to fight the germs will depend on their state of health which is for a child is determined by their diet.
How is diarrhoea prevented?
- Improved health of child so it can fight the germs.
- Clean environment so the germs cannot spread.
- Introduce and reiterate healthy behavioural practices.
- Cleaning hands with soap has been cited as one of the most cost effective public health interventions and can reduce the incidence of diarrhoea disease by over 40 per cent.
- Cleaning the water before drinking it either through boiling, solar pasteurisation, filtration, chlorination or other tested systems of disinfection.
- Improving sanitation facilities has been associated with an estimated median reduction in diarrhoea incidence of 36 per cent across reviewed studies.
- Safe disposal of children faeces. Children’s stools tend to carry a higher pathogen load than adults, and many children play in areas in which stools are found. Safely disposing of them is therefore critical for reducing the number of diarrhoea cases.
Washing one’s hands with soap can reduce rates of diarrhoeal disease when carried out at critical moments such as:
- After using the toilet,
- After cleaning a child’s bottom
- Before handling food.
Washing hands with water alone is much less effective in preventing disease than using soap. Soap breaks down grease and dirt that carry germs and disease-causing pathogens. Using soap also increases the amount of time spent washing hands, compared to water alone. Yet lack of soap does not seem to be a major barrier to hand washing: It has been found that 95 per cent of mothers in developing countries have some sort of soap product at home.
People wash their hands due to feelings of disgust, nurture, comfort and desire to conform, rather than health concerns alone.
A simple lesson could have saved a life
Before we started working in this community, we heard a story of a young mother whose baby was suffering from diarrhoea. Of course she gave the baby water to drink, but the more water she gave the worse the diarrhoea got. So she stopped providing water to the baby, and unfortunately, the baby died.
A simple class at school could have prevented the baby getting diarrhoea, could have helped the mother know what to do to save her babies life.
By providing local community schools in a small village in rural Tanzania such classes along side free standing water tanks and soap we can ensure that these future parents will know exactly what to do to keep themselves and their families safe.
The Livingstone Tanzania trust’s Clean Hands Saves Lives campaign will teach the students everything they need to know about personal hygiene.
Only 2 of the 34 schools in Babati, Tanzania has hand washing facilities with their toilet.
Our aim is to equip the remaining 33 schools with a free-standing,locally made, water tank and soap so that all the children in the greater community can learn about health and hygiene. Lessons they can take home to their parents.
Each school, with between 400-500 students per school, will also receive a day’s training on hand washing hygiene and why it is so important.
The cost to equip and train each school is just £270 per school, potentially helping to save manyhundreds of young lives.
All donations large and small will be gratefully received.
Poverty is a complex problem. Our approach through education, giving the community the skills they need to fight poverty for themselves is a sustainable long term solution that rather than creating dependency creates dignity and pride. As a grassroots development charity we are working with the community dealing with the problems that they tell us they face, not the problems we tell them they face.
Please help us raise the funds for a cleaner tomorrow
