Press Release
October 14, 2008

Gordon leads national observance of 1st-ever Global Handwashing Day

Independent Senator Richard J. Gordon leads today (Oct. 15) the nationwide observance of the first-ever Global Handwashing Day aimed at raising public awareness about the benefits of proper handwashing in combating common but potentially deadly infectious diseases.

Gordon, also chairman and chief executive officer of the Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC), will be joined by other government officials and non-governmental organizations in simultaneous activities in key areas in the country.

"The recent typhoid outbreak in Laguna could have spread further than it had if the Red Cross and its partners didn't go house to house to inform people that proper handwashing could prevent the spread of the disease. Typhoid is just one of the many diseases that proper handwashing can prevent," he said.

The Senator is a staunch advocate of proper hand hygiene as a means of preventing diseases, beginning from his early days as a Red Cross volunteer in disaster sites and resettlement areas up to the present day.

Gordon was also selected as an official endorser of a leading soap brand, Safeguard, aimed at promoting best practices in hand hygiene among health care professionals and the public in general. The talent fee for his endorsement amounting to six million pesos was donated to PNRC for its various projects..

He has also filed Senate Resolution (SR) 627 urging the Department of Health, Department of Education, and the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation to tap government resources in order to participate and assist the United Nations in the implementation of the 1st Global Handwashing Day on Oct. 15, 2008..

According to World Health Organization (WHO), a simple practice of washing one's hands could save the lives of as much as a million children a year, especially those who are afflicted with diarrhea and pneumonia.

Gordon noted that in SR 627, handwashing with soap reduces diarrheal morbidity by 44 percent with hands as the touted principal carriers of disease-causing germs, and handwashing with soap can avert 1 million of those deaths

Other diseases that can be prevented through proper hand hygiene include acute respiratory infections, intestinal worm infestations, and eye diseases.

On Global Handwashing Day, children, school teachers and parents are expected to join celebrities, government officials, NGO ambassadors and members of the private sector to call for proper hand hygiene practices across the world and raise awareness that handwashing with soap is a powerful public health intervention.

The first-ever Global Handwashing Day is an international initiative to promote handwashing with soap to reduce diarrhea in developing countries and implement large-scale handwashing interventions by combining the expertise and resources of the soap industry with the facilities and resources of governments.

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