COVID-19 pandemic: Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) as a critical control measure remains a major challenge in low-income countries

16968 12 92861 3 269168 document 92861 Donde et al - Final-Revised manuscript_20201216.pdf application/pdf 92d3f5fbc10907ecbcff44ff2541b3f5 MD5 348236 2021-01-05 12:31:29 https://pure.iiasa.ac.at/id/eprint/16968/1/Donde%20et%20al%20-%20Final-Revised%20manuscript_20201216.pdf 16968 1 1 application/pdf text en public cc_by_nc_nd_4

Donde et al - Final-Revised manuscript_20201216.pdf

2023-01-01 accepted 92862 2 269171 document 92862 lightbox.jpg image/png d414e3bb6374ac2cf5f54ffbbea631ee MD5 44496 2021-01-05 12:31:53 https://pure.iiasa.ac.at/id/eprint/16968/2/lightbox.jpg 16968 2 2 image/png other Thumbnails conversion from text to thumbnail_lightbox en staffonly

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http://eprints.org/relation/isVersionOf https://pure.iiasa.ac.at/id/document/92861 http://eprints.org/relation/isVolatileVersionOf https://pure.iiasa.ac.at/id/document/92861 http://eprints.org/relation/isIndexCodesVersionOf https://pure.iiasa.ac.at/id/document/92861 archive 353 disk0/00/01/69/68 2021-01-04 08:27:01 2023-01-01 03:00:02 2021-01-04 08:27:01 article show Donde O.O. Atoni E. Muia A.W. Yillia P. 2003 COVID-19 pandemic: Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) as a critical control measure remains a major challenge in low-income countries pub BNR WAT COVID-19; Low-income countries; SARS-CoV-2; WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is responsible for the deadly respiratory disease called coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19), an ongoing global public health emergency that has been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization. We review literature on the transmission and control of SARS-CoV-2 and discuss the challenges of focusing on water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) as critical control measures in low-income countries. A significantly higher prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 related deaths has been reported for the United States of America and other high-income countries in Europe and Asia, regardless of advanced medical facilities in those countries. In contrast, much lower COVID-19 related morbidity and mortality rates have been documented in many low-income countries, despite having comparatively higher socioeconomic burdens and suboptimal medical facilities. By September 29, 2020 over one million deaths have been reported. On the same day, the cumulative total of COVID-19 related morbidity for Africa was 35,954 with 3.5% of the global COVID-19 related deaths. We present arguments for the relatively low COVID-19 morbidity and mortality rates in many low-income countries and discuss the critical importance of WASH for preventing the spread of infectious diseases like COVID-19. We observe that the key recommendations put forward by the World Health Organization to effectively control the pandemic have been difficult to implement in low-income countries. We conclude that the pandemic reinforces previous pronouncements that adequate and effective WASH measures are crucial for public health and recommend closer coordination between public health and WASH sectors. 2021-03-01 published Elsevier 10.1016/j.watres.2020.116793 339 public Water Research 191 e116793 TRUE 00431354 FALSE no info:eu-repo/semantics/article