HORIZON INTERNATIONAL SOLUTIONS SITE

This is the third article of a series on “Realizing Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for All.” It features the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council's (WSSCC) progress in meeting sanitation and hygiene needs with the help of the communities themselves and assistance from the WSSCC managed Global Sanitation Fund.

This article focuses on the background of the problem, what it means for nearly half the people of the developing world who lack adequate sanitation and hygiene. Today, an estimated 2.4 to 2.6 billion individuals lack access to any type of improved sanitation facility according to the World Health Organization (WHO).  According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) half of the developing world, more than 35 % of the world’s population lack access to adequate sanitation. And, poor sanitation and hygiene are inextricably linked to water quality.

SARS, coronavirus, antibiotic resistant bacteria, Lyme disease, West Nile Virus, lead poisoning, pesticides, disease reservoirs, and environmental conditions are just a few of the concerns and factors addressed in the transdisciplinary “One Health” approaches to enhance prevention and therapeutic care for humans and animals discussed in the book, Human-Animal Medicine: Clinical Approaches to Zoonoses, Toxicants and Other Shared Health Risks.  This timely, valuable book by Doctors Peter M. Rabinowitz and Lisa A. Conti, along with many other authors, provides insights and guidance while calling for greater cooperation among human health and veterinary care providers.

Update of June 11, 2013:Packets of multidisciplinary publications and global health DVDs have been received by 53 countries.

The Global Development And Environment Institute (GDAE) at Tufts University, co-directed by Dr. Neva Goodwin, has released an extraordinary collection of publications in the social and environmental sciences and global health and is distributing it for free to universities in 138 nations, with special attention to those institutions that are most in need of library resources.