Course: Social and Religious Studies, Topic: UNIT 3:Hygiene and sanitation

General

UNIT 3:Hygiene and sanitation
Key Unit Competence: Recognize the importance of living in a healthy environment.

Attitudes and Values: Appreciate the importance of keeping our province clean, show concern regarding the importance of proper hygiene, awareness of HIV/AIDS, STIs and TB.

3.1 Sanitation
Sanitation is the general cleanliness of our environment.
People need to keep the environment clean to prevent diseases that are caused by poor sanitation.
Activity 3.1

1. Discuss what activities are taking place in the pictures given above.
2. Explain other ways in which we can keep our environment clean.
3. How can diseases caused by poor sanitation be prevented?

Activities Being Carried Out

Sanitation involves activities which help to keep the environment clean.
These include:
• Sweeping: Sweeping our compound helps to remove rubbish, which can cause diseases.
• Proper disposal of human waste: Human waste like faeces and urine, can be a source of germs or microbes which spread disease.
• Draining off stagnant water: This helps to destroy breeding areas of mosquitoes, preventing the spread of diseases like malaria.
• Slashing grass around our homes: This helps to keep away dangerous animals like snakes and prevents the spread of mosquitoes.
• Cleaning the house: This involves sweeping, mopping and removing cobwebs etc which helps to prevent the spread of disease.
• Having a rubbish pit and dustbins: This helps in the disposal of household waste such as leftover food and other waste. A rubbish pit should be dug 30 metres away from the house.
Things we use to keep our province clean
We use different tools to ensure cleanliness in our homes, at school and other places in our province. Some of the tools are shown here.
Activity 3.2
Suggest four other things we use to keep our province clean.

Importance of keeping our province clean
It is good to keep our province and our homes clean because when we live in a clean environment it helps us to:
• Prevent disease.
• Avoid bad odours.
• Keep dangerous animals away.
• Stay healthy.
• Avoid the spread of disease.
• Promote development.
• Maintain proper hygiene.
Activity 3.3
1. Discuss which diseases are spread by living in a dirty environment.
2. How can we prevent the spread of diseases caused living in a dirty environment?
Dangers of poor sanitation
Living in a dirty environment can cause the following:
• Easy spread of disease.
• Pollution.
• Death.
• Slow development.
The most common diseases spread by poor sanitation are diarrhoea, dysentery, cholera, typhoid and malaria.

3.2 Hygiene
Hygiene is cleanliness as a means of preventing diseases.
Personal hygiene
Personal hygiene is the way in which we keep our bodies clean.
Activity 3.4
1. Discuss which of the pictures are related to personal hygiene.
2. Name other activities that we can do to promote personal hygiene.

Ways of keeping good personal hygiene
There are many activities we can undertake to keep our bodies clean. These
activities help to promote personal hygiene:
• Bathing every day
• Cutting fingernails and toenails short
• Brushing our teeth every day
• Washing our hands after visiting the toilet or latrine
• Washing our hands before eating
• Washing our clothes regularly
• Iorning clothes to kill germs
• Having a regular haircut
Importance of personal hygiene
It is important to maintain personal hygiene because it:
• Makes us look smarter.
• Controls the spread of germs.
• Prevents foul body odour.
• Prevents skin diseases like scabies.
• Prevents diseases related to our teeth.
We can use things like a sponge, soap, clean water, comb, razor blade, nail cutters and toothbrush, to maintain good personal hygiene.
Activity 3.5
Discuss how you keep yourself clean.

Dangers of poor personal hygiene
When we do not maintain personal hygiene, it leads to:
• Unpleasant body odour.
• Tooth decay.
• Spread of diseases like diarrhoea.
• Accidental injuries from long fingernails to ourselves or others.
Diseases spread by poor personal hygiene include: tooth decay, scabies, dysentery, typhoid, worm infections, diarrhoea, ringworm and trachoma.

Hygiene of private parts
Private parts are parts on the human body which are always kept covered by clothing in public. They are external body parts that are visible when a person is naked.
They include: the buttocks, anus, penis, vagina and breasts of women.
Keeping your private parts clean and well-maintained keep you fresh and avoid diseases which can spread through having poor hygiene.
We can care for our private parts by:

• Shaving the pubic hair using a pair of scissor.
• Washing the private parts with clean water and soap.
• Drying it with a clean towel.
• Wearing clean pair of underwears daily.
• Putting on dry and ironed underwears.
• Change the underwear every day.
• For girls and women if you have your periods, change your pads
• regularly.

Effects of poor hygiene of private parts
Having poor hygiene of private parts can cause social and health problems such as:
• Bad body smell. The main cause of bad body smell is interaction of sweat and bacteria.
• It causes diseases like trichomoniasis, candidiasis, genital warts and other urinary infections.
• Itching of the private parts. It is caused by bacteria which develops on the skin because of dirtiness.
• Body lice. Body lice refer to insects which grow and produce eggs in clothing and bedding because of dirtiness. These insects crawl on the skin and feed on your blood making you not comfortable.
Activity 3.6
1. Briefly explain personal hygiene.
2. Name four items used in keeping good personal hygiene.
3. Why is it important to keep good personal hygiene?
4. State four ways of keeping personal hygiene.
5. Name two diseases caused by poor personal hygiene.
6. Why is it important to wash our hands after using the toilet?
7. List three private parts of the body.
8. Give two ways of caring with our private parts.
3.3 Diseases
Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs)
Sexually transmitted infections are diseases which spread from one person to another through sex intercourse with an infected person.
Some sexually transmitted infections are caused by poor hygiene when a person does not wash his or her body and clothes. Sexually transmitted infections can also be called sexually transmitted diseases.
One example of a sexually transmitted disease is:

Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS)
The word acquired means to get. The word immune comes from the word immunity which means the ability of the body to fight diseases.
Deficiency means lack of something and syndrome means signs and symptoms of disease.
AIDS is caused by a virus called Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).
It spreads mainly through sex with an infected person.
The AIDS virus can also spread from one person to another in different ways.
Activity 3.7
Discuss different ways in which AIDS can be spread from one person to
another.

How AIDS/HIV is Spread
AIDS can be spread from one person to another in different ways:
• Through sex with an infected person.
• Through transfusion of infected blood.
• From an infected mother to her child.
• By sharing sharp instruments with an infected person.
• Through accidents which involve contact of the blood with infected person.

Signs and symptoms of AIDS
The HIV virus destroys the body’s immunity by killing the white blood cells It leaves the body defenceless. This makes the body weak and unable to fight other diseases.
The signs and symptoms of AIDS include:
• Loss of body weight.
• Itchy skin rash.
• White coating in the mouth (oral thrush)
• Prolonged fever.
• Prolonged dry cough.
• General body weakness.
How to prevent and control the spread of AIDS
We can prevent the spread of AIDS in the following ways:
• Abstaining from sex until marriage.
• Use condoms during sex.
• Being faithful to your partner (fidelity)
• Avoid sharing sharp instruments with an infected person.
• Through health education.
• Use screened blood for transfusion.
• Having an AIDS test with one’s partner before marriage.
Ways of caring for AIDS patients
We should not mistreat HIV patients. They need our help. We should show sympathy towards them. We should take care of AIDS patients by:
• Allowing them adequate rest and sleep.
• Washing their clothes and bedding.
• Spending spare time with patients, giving them hope.
• Providing healthy diet.
• Providing counselling
Effects of AIDS
• Causes death in many people.
• Raises the number of orphans, widows and widowers.
• Leads to massive poverty due to the death of productive people and reduction in the labour force.
• Leads to imposition of travel restrictions to some countries.
• Leads to misery and hatred among people due to loss of their loved ones.
• Causes large scale famine due to lack of enough labour force.
Other Sexually Transmitted Infections STIs and ways to prevent them
Carefully study the chart below.
Tuberculosis (TB)
Tuberculosis is an infectious disease that affects the respiratory system. It is caused by a bacteria called micro bacterium.

How tuberculosis is spread
It is spread by breathing in polluted air containing tuberculosis germs.
It is also spread through saliva when sharing food with an infected person.
Signs and symptoms of tuberculosis
• Prolonged cough
• Prolonged fever
• Loss of body weight
• General body weakness
• Pain in bones, joints and backache
• Sweating at night
• Coughing and spitting mucus with blood
Prevention and control of tuberculosis
• Immunize children at birth with the BCG vaccine.
• Isolate children from the infected person.
• Early treatment of tuberculosis infection.
The BCG vaccine (bacille calmette guerin) is given to children at birth because the child is not born with immunity that fights against tuberculosis.

The BCG vaccine is injected on the right upper arm of a child at birth, which protects the child throughout life. Some precautions still needs to be taken.
Activity 3.8
1. Name the bacteria causing TB.
2. Give the full name of BCG.
Revision Exercise
1. Describe three activities involved in sanitation.
2. Why is it important to keep our environment clean?
3. List four things which are used to keep our surroundings clean.
4. State any two dangers of poor sanitation in our province.
5. Differentiate personal hygiene from sanitation ?
6. Why is it important to keep our bodies clean?
7. Give three things we can do, in order to keep our bodies clean.
8. Write the full form of the following:
a) AIDS
b) HIV
c) STIs
d) PID
10. What are sexually transmitted diseases?
11. Name any three sexually transmitted diseases.
12. Describe three ways in which AIDS can be spread.
13. Suggest two ways of preventing the spread of HIV in our province.
14. Which part of the body is affected by tuberculosis?
15. How can tuberculosis be controlled?
16. Discuss signs or symptoms of tuberculosis.
17. Match the items use in A to its work in B
A B
Water for sweeping the compound
Towel for slashing the tall grasses
Broom for drying our bodies after bathing
Slasher for bathing, washing and mopping house
18. One of the following is not the way how AIDS is spread?
a) Sexual intercourse with an infected person.
b) From infected mother to the child.
c) Sitting in the same class with an infected person.
d) Transfusion of infected blood.
19. Mention threes ways of caring for our private body parts.
20. Explain two dangers of poor hygiene of private body parts.

Social and Religious Studies

General

UNIT 3:Hygiene and sanitation

UNIT 3:Hygiene and sanitation

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