Culture and hygiene

Research in to hygiene behaviours is important to locate specific disease transmission causes and hence aid sanitation programmes. Educational programmes have high success rates globally in the reduction of disease occurrence as shown in the table.

Hygiene methods can be grouped in to 5 domains.

-          Disposal of human faeces.

-          Use and protection of water sources.

-          Water and personal hygiene.

-          Food preparation and storage.

-          Domestic and environmental hygiene.

(Kaltenthaler and Drasar, 1996).

The nature of the domains indicates how, as population rises the risk of decreased hygiene levels also rises.

The role of cultural practices in disease prevalence is interesting to note and the disparities between