Indian homes among dirtiest

[A/Prof. Prahlad Vadakkepat]

Indian homes among dirtiest

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Indian_homes_among_dirtiest/articleshow/3480835.cms

NEW DELHI: Ever dreamt of a squeaky clean home with gleaming floors and glittering lampshades? Where germs and microbes are wiped out with a vengeance? You won't get it in India, according to a seven-country survey by the Hygiene Council, a global initiative that brings together experts in microbiology, virology, infectious diseases, immunology, and public health.  Indian homes are the dirtiest in the world, except for Malaysia, the survey said. The cleanest are to be found in Saudi Arabia, said the Council, headed by Dr John Oxford, virology professor at Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry. The survey was conducted in UK, US, Germany, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and India.  The results were computed on the basis of swabs taken from eight frequently-touched surfaces in the home — the bathtub, kitchen sink, taps in the bathroom and kitchen, a child's plastic toy, fridge-handle, a dishcloth and kitchen worktop. One-hundred and forty samples were taken from families across the income spectrum.  The Hygiene Council's annual study, found 40% of these surfaces had unsatisfactorily high levels of contamination. India definitely didn't emerge with a spotless record. Kitchen surfaces in Indian homes were found to be even more unhygienic than bathrooms. The dishcloth in an Indian kitchen was 100% contaminated. Most Indian kitchen sinks had E. coli and looked dirty.  Dr Sandip Ray, one of the Hygiene Council's experts and professor of community medicine at Gulbarga's Khaja Bandanawaj Institute of Medical Sciences, explains that "Awareness is low in India, be it the government or people. Basic and cheap precautions like washing hands before eating, not picking up food from the floor, etc, are given the go by. Health workers are not too educated either."  Ditto for Malaysia. It is at the top of the dirty league table, lending itself to the jokey aside that there's always something more than food being cooked in the Malaysian kitchen! It may be brewing infection.