October 15 is Global Handwashing Day.

It is an annual global advocacy day dedicated to advocating handwashing with soap as an easy, effective and affordable way to prevent diseases and save lives.

The first Global Handwashing Day was commemorated in 2008, when over 120 million children washed their hands with soap in more than 70 countries around the world.

The 2024 Global Handwashing Day theme is “Why are clean hands still important?”

The World Health Organization estimates that 50% of cases of child undernutrition are due to repeated diarrhoea and intestinal infections caused by poor sanitation and hygiene conditions or lack of safe water.

That’s why handwashing with soap is a critical determinant for preventing life-threatening infections and maintaining nutrition.

Many illnesses start when hands become contaminated with disease-causing bacteria and viruses.

Touching different things the most often, even a hand usually carries dozens of thousands of bacteria or viruses, and the bacteria last long to damage people’s health, once they stick to hands.

Two major illnesses that are transmitted through the hands are diarrhoea and pneumonia. And they cause more than 20% of deaths of children under five. Most of these deaths can be prevented by handwashing with soap.

According to data, approximately 525 000 children die from diarrheal diseases every year.

Good handwashing with soap can prevent almost all cases of childhood diarrhoea. It is also estimated that drinking clean water and handwashing with soap can prevent the loss of nutrients through diarrhoea and reduce stunting by up to 15% in children under 5.

Handwashing reduces the rate of respiratory infections by removing respiratory pathogens from hands and preventing them from entering the body or passing on to other people.

Proper handwashing also helps prevent the spread of cold and flu and highly contagious enteric bacterial infections.

Handwashing and hand disinfection are the key to stemming the spread of various world-sweeping epidemics.

A variety of activities are conducted in the DPRK to mark the day every year, raising the public awareness of the importance of handwashing with soap.