Genesee County Health Department
Better Life Through Better Health
Release Date: October 14, 2008 End Date: October 16, 2008
Contact Person: Janet Phelps
Environmental Health Coordinator
Genesee County Health Department
Phone: (810) 257-3199
RE: Global Handwashing
Day – October 15, 2008
On October 15th, the Genesee
County Health Department (GCHD) will join hands with millions of children
from 20 countries across 5 continents to encourage handwashing on the first
ever Global Handwashing Day. On this day there will be worldwide educational
activities to raise awareness of proper handwashing.
Environmental Health Staff from the Genesee County
Health Department will be providing education and outreach about handwashing
from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm at the October 15th Health Fair to be
held on the second floor of the Floyd J. McCree Courts & Human Services
Building located at 630 S. Saginaw Street in Flint.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO),
diarrhea kills almost 2 million children every year, making it the second
leading killer of children worldwide. A simple habit – washing hands with
soap – could reduce this figure by half. The inaugural Global Handwashing
Day puts this often overlooked hygiene challenge at the forefront of the
international agenda while keeping children at the heart of each country’s
national and local initiatives. When coupled with educational initiatives,
handwashing with soap is one of the world’s most cost-effective preventive
health interventions and has been proven to reduce the risk of not only
diarrhea, but also those illness caused by viruses and bacteria such as the
flu and staph infections.
The coalition behind the Global Handwashing Day
is an alliance of public and private partners who together form the
Public-Private Partnership for Handwashing (www.globalhandwashing.org).
It is an international initiative to promote handwashing with soap to reduce
diarrhea in developing countries and implement large-scale handwashing
interventions by combining the expertise and resources of the soap industry
with the facilities and resources of governments.
On Global Handwashing Day, children, school teachers
and parents will join celebrities, government officials, ambassadors from
non-governmental organizations, and members of the private sector to call
for proper hygiene practices across the world and raise awareness that
handwashing with soap is a powerful public health intervention.
For more information please contact the Genesee County
Health Department at 810-257-3199 or visit
www.gchd.us.
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