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View all search resultsCorporations can promote hygiene through community development
The habits of washing one’s hands with soap whenever feasible, keeping distance from others in a range of settings and perhaps not spitting in public should be encouraged.
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“Hygiene is two thirds of health” is a long-standing proverb that resonates with the world today. Looking back at our lives before the COVID-19 pandemic, we can understand why our way of living helped the virus spread and proliferate.
How could the simple act of washing one’s hands with soap and wearing masks suddenly be essential now, even though we knew to do so since we were kids? This shows that we were so accustomed to our own behaviors that we were not heedful enough of a clean and healthy lifestyle.
In the 1970s the government initiated a program called PHBS or Pola Hidup Bersih dan Sehat (Clean and Healthy Lifestyle). Ever since, doctors and health workers have constantly reminded the public about the healthy living. Children began learning about these habits, including bathing, brushing their teeth twice a day and keeping their nails clean, in preschool.
This government-sponsored campaign aimed to familiarize people with a clean and healthy lifestyle to create a health-conscious community with the knowledge and awareness to live a clean and healthy life.
Now, during the COVID-19 pandemic, about 50 years after the PHBS campaign began, we are reminded about the importance of washing our hands with soap and clean water. During this unprecedented pandemic, good hygiene has become more important than ever.
Scientists have predicted that the world will have to deal with the threat for the next 18 months, until a viable vaccine can be developed and made available for public use.
Some countries have already built private sector capacity into their COVID-19 responses. For example, England, France, Germany, the Lombardy region of Italy and South Africa have used private health sector engagement to increase testing capacity and add extra hospital beds, ventilators and health workers to their response capacity.
