Acute soap and water shortages
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As nations around the world fight the coronavirus pandemic with mass lockdowns and travel bans, United Nations experts warn as many as 3 billion people lack even the most basic weapons to protect themselves: soap and running water.
The outbreak has infected 200,000 people and killed 9,000, scorching through populations across the globe. While Europe has become the epicenter of the battle against the virus, closing borders and sequestering millions of people in their homes, concerns are rising for developing nations with fragile healthcare systems.
Countries across Africa and Asia have heavily restricted travel, imposed quarantines and closed schools, with fears for impoverished communities as infections begin to grow.
But one of the most fundamental practices people can adopt to shield themselves from the virus 鈥 hand washing 鈥 remains inaccessible for a large swath of humanity. Using household survey data, the United Nations Children鈥檚 Fund estimates 40 percent of the world鈥檚 population, or three billion people, do not have the means to wash their hands at home.
Sam Godfrey, UNICEF chief of water and sanitation in east and southern Africa, said communities lack easily accessible running water, are unable to buy soap or do not realize its vital role in preventing illness.
鈥淓ven for the front-line workers, the health workers, there remains a challenge in terms of understanding the importance of hand washing,鈥 he said.
With the first infections in the region often coming from those who have travelled internationally, Godfrey described the outbreak as 鈥渁lmost like a rich man鈥檚 disease for Africa, which, of course, will end up with the poor man suffering the most. Those living in tightly packed slums, as well as the large refugee populations in camps and urban areas in the Horn of Africa, are particularly at risk because they may be malnourished or have underlying health problems and often lack sanitation.
In sub-Saharan Africa, 63 percent of people in urban areas 鈥 258 million people 鈥 lack access to hand washing, according to UNICEF figures. In central and south Asia, the figure is 22 percent or 153 million people.
But at the Mathare slum in the Nairobi, Kenya, people shrugged off the risk.
鈥淗ave you seen any of those people in hospitals come from the slum? That is a disease for the rich,鈥 said Ishmail Ayegah, a bicycle repairman.
The World Health Organization has sounded the alarm about the potentially devastating consequences of an outbreak that has pushed even wealthy nations to the limit.
鈥淎s the virus moves to low-income countries, we鈥檙e deeply concerned about the impact it could have among populations with high HIV prevalence, or among malnourished children,鈥 said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
While European countries hunt for ventilators, in Africa the pandemic has caused fears of soap shortages. UNICEF is distributing supplies for a million people, but Godfrey said replenishing stocks has become a challenge in countries that import soap, with restrictions hampering supplies from China and India.
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