Importance of Hand Washing To Survival

Currently, the effort to create a healthier generation of Indonesia still needs the attention of all parties. One of the indicators commonly used to see the degree of public health is a Childhood mortality (Red Sea) or the Infant Mortality Rate (IMR).

Red Sea, totaling 31.04 / 1000 live births. This means there are 31.04 for every 1,000 babies died in childbirth. The figure was still higher than Malaysia and Singapore, each of which amounted to 16.39 / 1,000 and 2.3 / 1000 live births.

Whereas, in accordance with the target of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 4 points, namely in 2015 Indonesia must be able to reduce infant mortality to 17/1000 live births. These data illustrate that the effort to build and maintain healthy Indonesian children is still a big challenge for all concerned.

In addition, there are some diseases that are still often infects children, and even cause death, such as diarrhea. According to note the World Health Organization (WHO), diarrhea kills 1.5 million children in the world every year. While the incidence of diarrhea in most of Indonesia is still high.

In Indonesia, according to the Basic Health Research (Riskesdas) in 2007, diarrhea leading cause of death 31.4 percent of infants aged 29 days to 11 months. Approximately 162 thousand children under five die from diarrhea each year, or about 460 children per day.

From the Household Health Survey (SKRT) in Indonesia, diarrhea is the leading cause of death in children under five years the number two and number three for the baby as well as the number five for all ages. Every child in Indonesia is experiencing diarrhea episodes 1.6 - 2 times per year.

Efforts to maintain the survival of Indonesian children, including prevention of diarrhea, worms and other diseases, should focus on preventive measures (prevention). Preventive actions can be performed by civilizing clean and healthy living behavior (PHBS) in each family, which is the easiest and cheapest way.

PHBS such as washing hands with soap (washing hands) has been medically proven to be effective in preventing and fortify the body from various diseases such as diarrhea, intestinal worms, until the bird flu and swine influenza (swine flu). According to WHO studies, washing hands using soap can reduce the incidence of the disease until the 47th cent.