Unilever Nigeria Plc, brand owners of Lifebuoy soap said it’s deploying  a campaign tagged ; Hand Washing  to fight infectious diseases via  Integrated Marketing Communications tools.

Recently, the company through the campaign had mobilize about five  million Nigerians to fight infectious  diseases such as diarrhoea through various platforms including texting “defeat” to 2050 and through  physical signing of pledge booklet.

The campaign which has become Africa’s biggest pledge to defeat diarrhoea, seeks to mobilize the public in hand washing in a bid to prevent the deadly disease.

Speaking,   Mr. Thabo Mabe, Managing Director of Unilever  at the unveiling of the campaign said the occasion marks the announcement of a world record breaking pledge in Nigeria.  Quoting World Health Organisation’s  (WHO) record on hand  picked diseases,  said,  “Every year, more than 3.5 million children die before their fifth birthday because of diarrhoea and pneumonia.

In fact, one child every 15 seconds dies unnecessarily from diarrhoeal disease, which is the second most common cause of death in children under five in the world.”

Dr.  Babayemi Osinaike, Consultant Paediatrician/Head, Olikoye Ransome Kuti Children Emergency Room LUTH, noted that part of the factors that drive the transmission of the disease includes lack of awareness on benefits of hand washing with water and soap.

“One of the most cost-effective public health interventions studies have shown that hand washing with soap can reduce the incidence of diarrhoeal disease by over 40 percent. Some critical times to clean your hands are before and after meals and snacks, before caring for young children, after touching a public surface, before and after preparing food, especially raw meat, poultry, or seafood, after using the restroom, when hands are dirty, after touching animals, When you or someone around you is ill,” he explained.

“Turning hand washing with soap before eating and after using the toilet into an ingrained habit could save more lives than any single vaccine or medical intervention, cutting deaths from diarrhoea by almost half and deaths from acute respiratory infections by one-quarter,” he said.