WaterAid statement on Gavi’s Global Vaccine Summit

On Thursday 4 June, the UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, will host the Global Vaccine Summit. The summit, which will take place virtually, aims to secure further funds for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.

Tim Wainwright, CEO, WaterAid said:  
 
“Thousands of children die needlessly every year from illnesses, such as cholera and typhoid, that are largely preventable with vaccines and clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene. These are some of our best and most cost-effective health interventions, but their combined power is being undermined by woefully low investment in improving hygiene. 
 
“Research has shown that combining water, toilets and hygiene with routine childhood vaccinations and nutrition support could save nearly 700,000 children’s lives every year and prevent billions of cases of diarrheal illness and pneumonia in children under-five.  
 
While the world waits and hopes for a Covid-19 vaccine, preventing the spread of infection and strengthening health systems has never been more important. Alongside much-needed investment in vaccines, we want to see equal commitment to hygiene to enable integrated programmes to be the norm and countries to be more resilient to future health crises.” 

Case study: saving lives with hygiene and vaccines in Nepal  
 
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In Nepal, diarrhoea was a leading killer of children in 2015.  Of the more than 1,200 children under five who died from the illness that year, over half of the deaths were linked to dirty water, poor hygiene and sanitation.  

But before their baby reaches nine months, a new mother in Nepal will take their child to an immunisation clinic at least five times. Immunisation sessions were the perfect opportunity to promote good hygiene practices.

WaterAid teamed with Nepal’s Ministry of Health to build hygiene education into the country’s vaccination programme to reduce diarrhoea cases and prevent parasitic infections. 170,000 mothers participated in hygiene sessions, which covered practices such as exclusive breastfeeding and handwashing.

The hygiene interventions effectively improved all key hygiene behaviours from 2% during baseline to 53% after one year of implementation. It also increased vaccine coverage, reducing drop-out and vaccine wastage rate and helping to target the hard-to-reach.

WaterAid

WaterAid is working to make clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene normal for everyone, everywhere within a generation. The international not-for-profit organisation works in 28 countries to change the lives of the poorest and most marginalised people. Since 1981, WaterAid has reached 26.4 million people with clean water and 26.3 million people with decent toilets. For more information, visit www.wateraid.org/uk, follow @WaterAid or @WaterAidPress on Twitter, or find WaterAid UK on Facebook at www.facebook.com/wateraid.

• 785 million people in the world – one in ten – do not have clean water close to home.[1]
• 2 billion people in the world – almost one in four – do not have a decent toilet of their own.[2]
• Around 310,000 children under five die every year from diarrhoeal diseases caused by poor water and sanitation. That's almost 800 children a day, or one child every two minutes.[3]
• Every £1 invested in water and toilets returns an average of £4 in increased productivity.[4]
• Just £15 can provide one person with clean water.[5]

[1] WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) Progress on drinking water, sanitation and hygiene: 2017 update and SDG Baselines

[2] WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) Progress on drinking water, sanitation and hygiene: 2017 update and SDG Baselines

[3] Prüss-Ustün et al. (2014) and The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (2018)

[4] World Health organization (2012) Global costs and benefits of drinking-water supply and sanitation interventions to reach the MDG target and universal coverage

[5] www.wateraid.org