Personal Hygiene

Hygiene: the things that you do to keep yourself

and your surroundings clean in order to maintain
good health. Good hygiene means living in an
environment where human and animal feces do
not enter your body.

One gram of feces, approximately the size of

a child’s little toenail may contain 10 million
viruses, one million bacteria, 1000 parasite cysts
and 100 worm eggs. Germs are passed in several
ways but all of these start with feces.

In environments where people don’t practice

good hygiene, they are not protected from feces
and they are expose to germs which cause
diarrhea and acute respiratory diseases. Safe
water combined with good hygiene practices
can reduce diarrhea infections by more than half.

Categories of Hygiene:
1. Personal hygiene
2. Household hygiene
3. School and Community hygiene

Personal Hygiene: involves keeping the

body clean (nails, finger, toes, teeth, ears, face,
hair and body), wearing footwear, wearing
clean clothes, using a toilet for urination
and defecation and cleaning the body well.
Personal hygiene includes menstrual hygiene
and managing menstruation hygienically.
Hands are the principal carriers of disease-
causing germs. If widely practiced, hand
washing with soap could prevent diarrheal
diseases, and respiratory infections.
Key Times of Hand Washing:
• After toilet use
• Before and after preparation of foods and eating
• Before feeding a child
• Before handling drinking water
• When hands are dirty (after playing, throwing of trash, working, farming,
household activities, etc.)

Good Hygiene Practices Include:

1. Handwashing with soap and clean water.
2. Taking a bath daily.
3. Keeping the hair clean and neat.
4. Wearing clean clothes.
5. Wearing shoes or slippers when going outdoors.
6. Toothbrushing with flouride toothpaste at least
twice a day.
7. Trimming long fingernails.
8. Covering mouth when sneezing or coughing.
9. Not spitting in public areas.
10. Learning to use the toilet properly for urination
and defecation.