Editor,

I would like to commend the Ministry of Health, under its community outreach health programme, Community Based Environment Health Promotion Programme for deciding to have a Hygiene and Sanitation Week.

The purpose of the Week will be to improve communities through behavioural change. I think that the greatest behavioural change that the Ministry of Health can tackle has a lot to do with a simple thing; washing hands with soap often.

The fact of the matter is this; washing your hands a few times a day prevents a myriad of diseases. So, if you want to reduce certain kinds of diseases and their transmissions, get people to wash.

Things like that reduce disease and instead of having to deal with more people in hospital beds, we can worry about other issues.

Prevention is better than cure; wash your hands and you won’t have to visit the hospital so often.

Name withheld on request