Hygiene Practices
personal hygiene can protect you and your community against infectious diseases and can also improve social acceptance.
Hygiene may be defined as conditions or practices conducive to maintaining health and preventing disease, especially through cleanliness. It refers to personal acts that can lead to good health and cleanliness. Personal hygiene includes body hygiene (skin care), oral hygiene (oral care), hand washing (hand care), face hygiene, fingernail and toenail hygiene (nail care), ear hygiene, hair hygiene (hair care), foot hygiene (foot care), armpit and bottom hygiene, clothes hygiene, menstrual hygiene (personal hygiene for women). Frequent hand washing, face washing, and bathing with soap and water are one of the most important ways to prevent the spread of infection and illness. Many diseases can be spread when hands, face, and body are not washed appropriately at the key times. Hands should be washed before eating or handling food; after using the toilet; blowing the nose, coughing or sneezing; touching animals or animal waste; handling rubbish; changing a nappy and before and after touching a sick or injured person. The prevention of communicable diseases, like diarrhoea, trachoma and many others are possible through the application of basic hygiene practices. Keeping hands, head and body clean stop the spread of germs and illness, thus minimise the incidence of communicable diseases. It benefits one own health and has a positive impact on the health of others in the locality. Good personal hygiene is a major determinant of health and an important public health action. Good personal hygiene also has aesthetic and social value. A schoolchild with poor personal hygiene might be isolated from friendship, be teased and bullied. Generally, cleaning oneself produces pride, comfort and dignity at home and in public places. Caring about the way one look is important to improve self-esteem.AHI HPS model implements the UNICEF Wash, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) in schools, a well-established health initiative designed to improve the effectiveness of hygiene behaviour change programmes, supported by UNICEF. Supervised tooth brushing with fluoridated toothpaste was added to WASH practices in the AHI HPS model, as recommended by the WHO.