Hygiene-Related Diseases in Developing Countries

Dear Colleagues,

The year 2020 raised the issue of personal hygiene discussions that we have not seen for 160 years, with the 1918 Spanish flu outbreak as the exception. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the fact that known simple hygiene interventions (such as disinfecting surfaces and hands) could potentially reduce the explosive transmission of the causative agent, SARS-CoV-2; however, to what extent that disinfection worked was the question. This debate between the airborne versus person-to-person transmission theory was, in essence, a repetition of the discussion that John Snow had with his peers during the cholera outbreaks in England in the 1850s; a conversation where he was eventually proved correct with his convincing arguments favoring food, hygiene, and water transmission. John Snow’s story also tells us how history favors excellent storytelling. The tale of the removal of a water pump handle in Broad Street forever linked cholera transmission to drinking water, and left Snow’s less attractive hygiene message in obscurity. However, novel research has indicated that even our recollection of Snow’s story might have to be revised with an increased emphasis on hygiene. 

Improving hygiene practices is one of the single most cost-effective means of reducing infectious diseases’ global health burden. Policymakers increasingly favor hygiene promotion because of its fundamental role in reducing infections—and probably, more importantly, its low cost for implementation—but this is still not enough to achieve the expected success. One reason could be because the interventions and underlying studies still build on our traditional water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) approach. It is often forgotten that many people in low- and middle-income countries live in high-density areas where close interaction with domestic animals and households under water stress is increasingly a reality for many. This forces us to re-explore contamination routes and investigate whether our traditional knowledge remains pertinent in a world of climate change and increasing urbanization. Therefore, metaphorically speaking, we still have a long way ahead besides removing the contaminated pump handle. 

This Special Issue will highlight various aspects of hygiene-related diseases, especially in low- and middle-income countries. We seek to showcase the vital work conducted on exploring the known and unknown facts of emerging and re-emerging hygiene-related diseases; social, cultural perspectives and behavior; novel methods for surveillance; modes of transmission; and finally, interventions to mitigate these diseases. We also encourage manuscripts on outbreak prediction and risk assessment, epidemiology during recent outbreaks, lessons learned from previous outbreaks, human health benefits, and economic sustainability.  

Prof. Dr. Peter Kjær Mackie Jensen
Prof. Dr. Anowara Begum
Prof. Dr. Debarati Guha 
Prof. Dr. Jahit Sacarlal 
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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• Hygiene-related Diseases
• Household hygiene 
• Fecal-oral transmission
• Diarrhea 
• Cholera
• Water
• Sanitation
• Emerging diseases
• One Health 
• Water insecurity
• Environmental Health