World Toilet Day is observed annually on 19 November. This international day of action aims to break the taboo around toilets and draw attention to the global sanitation challenge. Although many countries have reported progress, diseases related to poor sanitation and insufficient water supply remains an important global cause of morbidity and mortality.
By Kåre Mølbak, Statens Serum Institut
The vast majority of this burden of illness lies in Africa and Asia. For example, it is estimated that about 800,000 children die of diarrheal diseases each year, and for those children who survive, repeated episodes of diarrhea may precipitate impaired growth, impaired intellectual development, and poor quality of life.
It is also thought provoking that about 47 percent of India’s 330 million households have toilet facilities while 63 percent of homes have phone connections — mostly mobiles.
The sanitary revolution in Europe came in the aftermath of the cholera epidemics in the second part of the 19th century, and by providing toilets, sewage, and water, engineers, plumbers and constructors probably did much more for human health than doctors did. Perhaps it was a naïve hope that the cholera pandemics that affected Africa in particular from the early 1960s and South America from the 1990s would have resulted in similar sanitary revolutions.
However, it seems to be a rather slow evolution more than a revolution! Perhaps donor agencies and international organizations have oversimplified international health by a massive focus on malaria, hiv and tuberculosis while disregarding the enormous burden of parasitic, bacterial and viral diseases that are consequences of poor sanitation and water supplies, and that has equal direct and indirect costs for health and development. Think about it.
Nonetheless, there is progress. For example, in Bhutan, 93 % of the population has access to basic sanitation and 91% to safe water supplies. This is one of the many factors that – together with primary health care and vaccinations – resulted in a remarkable decline in child mortality and morbidity as well as better nutritional indicators in a period of less than 50 years.
The issue is also about human dignity. Can you imagine not having a toilet? Can you imagine not having privacy when you need to relieve yourself? The harsh reality is that one in three people on this globe has no access to a toilet! Have you ever thought about this meaning of dignity?
World Toilet Day was created to pose these kind of questions and to raise global awareness of the daily struggle for proper sanitation that a staggering 2.5 billion people face. World Toilet Day brings together different groups, such as media, the private sector, development organizations and civil society in a global movement to advocate for safe toilets.
We all give a shit!
Guest Blogger Kåre Mølbak, Statens Serum Institut
The Danish Society for Paediatric Infectious Diseases (DIPS) is organising an international symposium on 2-3 October 2015 at Comwell Klarskovgaard, Korsør. The scientific programme, and registration form can be found at DIPS’s homepage.
Established in October 2011, DIPS is a society for Paediatricians, Physicians, Academics and other healthcare personal who have an interest in Paediatric Infectious Diseases (PID). The purpose of the society is to promote education and research related to PID.
An article at www.nature.com titled After years of second-class status in research partnerships, African scientists are calling for change by Linda Nordling, discusses the important issue of equality in research.
The Nairobi Industrial Court agreed that six Kenyan doctors in an international research partnership had been systematically passed over for promotion and training, whereas their European colleagues had flourished. It was also perhaps the first time that African researchers had so strongly — and so publicly — voiced resentment of their perceived second-class status in partnerships with foreign colleagues. African scientists say that they often feel stuck in positions such as data-collectors and laboratory technicians, with no realistic path to develop into leaders.
Read the article Africa’s fight for equality.
Join us for the Global Health Minders’ Annual Meeting Wednesday 24 June 2015 at 10.00-12.00.
The meeting will be held at the University of Copenhagen, Department of Anthropology, Meeting room 16.0.30 (Building 16, ground floor, room 30), CSS, Øster Farimagsgade 5.
Please let us know if you will attend the meeting by email to no later than Monday 22 June.
1 comment
Morten Sodemann - 9. June 2014
An article titled ‘Indian gang rape case highlights lack of toilets’ on AP News online writes: “Beyond highlighting the rampant sexual violence in India, last week’s horrific crime is drawing attention to a glaring problem across the country that threatens women’s safety: the lack of toilets” Read the article here:
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/india-gang-rape-case-highlights-lack-toilets