Health issues in Africa and similar developing countries

Recently, I attended and made comments in a meeting organized by the GW Elliott School of International Affairs' Culture in Global Affairs research and policy program. This program is directed by Barbara Miller, professor of anthropology and international affairs.

The topic of this interesting meeting, held on March 5, 2009, was "Dirt, Disgust, and Desire: Hand-washing and Health in Developing Countries," and the main speaker was Val Curtis, reader in hygiene and director of the Hygiene Center at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

The significance of this well-attended meeting was the fact that in developing countries particularly Africa, where the lion's share of all the sicknesses and diseases result from improper hygienic practices and issues which are related to water. These issues are very large ones, affecting an even larger percentage of Africans than HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other tropical diseases.

In her talk, Dr. Curtis focused on hygiene behavior in other developing countries, on her findings in regard to the health effects of hand-washing, and on the effectiveness of different approaches to changing hygiene behavior.

Here is Dr. Curtis' talk:



And here is my intervention in the question and answer session: