Water washed diseases and prevention

Water-washed diseases are diseases that spread because there is not enough water for personal and domestic hygiene (washing hands, face, body, clothes and utensils). They depend on the quantity of water, not its quality.

Types

1. Diseases of the skin and eyes: scabies, ringworm, skin sores and ulcers, and eye infections such as trachoma and conjunctivitis. Poor washing allows germs and mites to spread by contact.
2. Louse-borne diseases: epidemic typhus and relapsing fever. Lice live and breed in unwashed clothes and hair.
3. Faecal-oral diseases that washing can prevent: diarrhoea, dysentery and typhoid also spread by dirty hands when water for handwashing is scarce.

Preventive measures

• Provide adequate water in quantity (at least 20 litres per person per day) near the house.
• Promote handwashing with soap after toilet use and before eating, and regular bathing and washing of clothes.
• Provide laundry and bathing places, and tap stands close to the houses.
• Hygiene education and personal cleanliness at schools and health centres.
• Improve sanitation and housing; control lice by regular washing and delousing.
• Treat the infected persons (for example, for trachoma and scabies).