Kenyans have been urged to embrace a hand washing culture to reduce diseases caused by poor hygiene.
According to the Kisumu County Public Health Officer Arthur Shikanda, most diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea and typhoid are as a result of poor hygiene.
“Most people do not take hand washing seriously and in most cases a good number of them also do not wash their hands properly despite the health risks posed,” said Shikanda on Thursday in Kisumu.
He urged parents to demonstrate to their children how to wash hands properly with soap, and advised them to avoid using objects such as towels in public places such as hotels and public toilets to dry hands.
“Using the same towel to dry the hands contributes to the spread of infections especially when one person does not wash their hands properly,” he added.
He urged the public to use towels only in their homes where they can personally wash and iron their towels.
“Africans are used to hearty handshakes and in the process they pass a lot of germs among themselves. As a result they need to wash their hands before preparing foods, eating foods, when they are from long journeys and also when they are just from the toilet,” said Shikanda.
He also urged mothers to wash their hands before breastfeeding in order to prevent the young ones who are very vulnerable to various infections.
“Hand washing is a very simple but very important practice that helps prevent the infection and spread of diseases and as a result everyone should take the practice seriously,” he added.
Elly Nyambok, the county disease surveillance coordinator also urged the public to embrace the exercise in order to improve their hygiene and reduce infections.
“Washing hands reduces diarrhea by 50 per cent and as a result it helps save lives by some percentage,” said Nyambok.
He also urged members of the public to build toilets in order to help improve on hygiene and also reaffirmed the commitment of the county government to fight disease prevalence in the county with the Sh1.6 million budget.
The duo urged the public to turn up for a hand washing exercise at Nyalik Primary School in Seme sub-county as the county joins the rest of the world in marking the World Hand Washing Day.