Why WASH?

I have been working in an international public health organization for 4 years and I have just started supporting the Neglected Infectious Diseases Program for a year. I am not a doctor, a nurse or an epidemiologist. I have a degree in Business Administration and Accounting from Peru and now I am working towards a degree in Economics. During the last year, I have learnt many things about the technical part of neglected infectious diseases, such as prevalence, mass drug administration, sentinel surveys, protocols, etc. However, my program is moving towards a new approach at the request from countries that we are working with: WASH which stands for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene.

I have found this approach very interesting because not only is it related to health but it is also related to other sectors, such as education, sanitation, water among others. Nevertheless, before explaining the results from my research about WASH's actions, I want to define the concept of Neglected Infections Diseases (NID, also called NTD, neglected tropical diseases). NID are diseases that affect the poorest populations characterized by lack of access to health services and basic sanitation; in addition, these people live in remote rural areas or urban slums.

Many interventions have been done to reduce the burden of these diseases as well as their negative impact on the economic and social well-being of the populations at risk. One of these interventions is mass drug administration, a health intervention that reduces the prevalence of these diseases through the supply of drugs to people having NID diseases or being at risk of getting them. Nonetheless, this intervention does not have long term effects if it is not accompanied by water, sanitation and hygiene actions (WASH).

Children Without Worms (CWW) is an organization that makes advocacy to link NID with WASH actions and they explain very well the benefits of these interventions in its article:  Promoting Collaboration between WASH and NTD Control Sectors.

The main WASH interventions are: a) Promotion of hand-washing and improved hygiene; b) Sanitation campaigns; c) Biosand filters; and d) Point of use of chlorination of drinking water. The following graphic gives an idea of the impact of WASH controlling STH (soil-transmitted helminths) whose is a parasitic disease.

Working for Controlling STH. Resource: PAHO (Pan American Health Organization)

In my next blog, I will explain with more detail each intervention and its impact on the economic burden reduction of neglected infectious diseases. Up till now, I can only add that these actions are inexpensive but their impact is huge!