ISLAMABAD, June 21: Everyday 600 children die of diarrhoea in Pakistan, and over 2 million fall victim to acute respiratory tract infection when simple hand-washing with soap could prevent them from contracting such infectious diseases.

This was stated by a panel of health experts in a symposium on “Hand Washing for Life Campaign 2003” organized by Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) in collaboration with Hope (Health- Oriented Preventive Education) and Infectious Diseases Society of Pakistan (IDSP) at a local hotel on Saturday.

The experts deplored that the government had put both cigarette and soap in the same category by increasing excise duty on soap that had reduced people’s access to the product. In a country where less than 1 per cent of GNP was spent on the health sector, making soap more expensive for people through indirect taxation was counterproductive, they said.

Highlighting the purpose of the symposium, the experts said it intended to create awareness among the medical profession, the media, the government and the general public that good hygiene, especially handwashing with soap, was a very simple way to prevent disease like typhoid, dysentery, diarrhoea, skin diseases, tuberculosis (TB) etc.

Dr Serajuddaula Syed, Chairman Scientific Committee PMA, emphasized that prevalence of infectious diseases in Pakistan was for the most part due to lack of awareness about good personal hygiene practices. He said regular handwashing with soap was extremely effective to interrupt many infectious cycles.

Dr Affia Zafar, Member Executive Committee IDSP, described the microbiological aspects of infectious diseases and said germs which caused illness were everywhere and could multiply into four million in just eight hours, while these survived for three hours in hands. “The number of germs on finger tips doubles after we use toilet, while damp hands spread germs 1,000 times more than the dry hands.

She said 78 per cent population in the world lived in the developing world, out of which 9 million died annually due to infectious diseases.

Dr Mubina Agboatwalla, Chairperson Hope, presented a research data on the impact of promoting handwashing with soap in impoverished local communities.