50 million Indians have no access to effective hand-wash: Study
A study has found out that 50 million Indians do not have access to hand-wash, which is putting them at risk
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FollowMore than 50 million people in India do not have access to effective hand-wash, putting them at a greater risk of acquiring and transmitting the novel coronavirus, according to a study.
Researchers from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington in the US found that without access to soap and clean water, over 2 billion people in low-and middle-income nations -- a quarter of the world's population -- have a greater likelihood of transmitting the coronavirus than those in wealthy countries.
According to the study, published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, more than 50% of the people in sub-Saharan Africa and Oceania lack access to effective hand-wash.
"Hand-washing is one of the key measures to prevent COVID transmission, yet it is distressing that access is unavailable in many countries that also have limited health care capacity," said Michael Brauer, a professor at IHME.
The study found that in 46 countries, more than half of people lacked access to soap and clean water.
In India, Pakistan, China, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Indonesia, more than 50 million persons in each country were estimated to be without handwashing access, according to the study.
"Temporary fixes, such as hand sanitizer or water trucks, are just that -- temporary fixes," Brauer said.
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"But implementing long-term solutions is needed to protect against COVID and the more than 700,000 deaths each year due to poor handwashing access," Brauer said.
He noted that even with 25% of the world's population lacking access to effective handwashing facilities, there have been "substantial improvements in many countries" between 1990 and 2019.
Those countries include Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Nepal, and Tanzania, which have improved their nations' sanitation, the researchers said.
The study does not estimate access to hand-washing facilities in non-household settings such as schools, workplaces, health care facilities, and other public locations such as markets.
Earlier this month, the World Health Organisation predicted 190,000 people in Africa could die of COVID-19 in the first year of the pandemic, and that upward of 44 million of the continent's 1.3 billion people could be infected with the coronavirus, the researchers said.
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