Is there a good side to a pandemic?

Washing your hands

It seems a strange question to ask, but is there a good side to a pandemic? You hear the word 'pandemic', and to be honest you just think of disaster and death. But what if it actually brings some form of good?

If you think about it, since the H1N1 scare, do you wash your hands a lot more than you used to? Have you encouraged your children to be more hygienic? Well you're not alone.

Time states that if any good has come out of the global H1N1 flu pandemic, it may have started with a child like Nayeli Quispe, a seven-year-old from the hillsides of La Paz, Bolivia. He and millions of other Bolivian schoolchildren have been paying attention to the massive campaign the country's public health officials have put out to try and contain the spread of the flu virus.

"First you wet them really well, then you rub the soap all around and then you dry them with a clean towel," says Nayeli.

Public health experts now say the increase in hand-washing across the country may have had some collateral benefits, not only in helping to reduce H1N1 infections, but also the spread of other common diseases in Bolivia.

"We see a steady 10 percent to 15 percent drop in the rate of incidence of acute diarrheal diseases in all age groups, compared with last year's numbers at this time," says Dr. René Lenis, Bolivia's director of epidemiology, referring to data collected on the number of weekly cases of diarrheal disease reported in medical centers nationwide in 2008 and 2009.

Although the new statistics, and the apparent link between hand-washing practices and disease reduction, need further investigation, "this certainly raises our attention," says Lenis.

Diarrheal diseases are the biggest killer of children under age five worldwide; in Bolivia, 30,000 children die each year from such illnesses. Swine flu, as H1N1 is still referred to there, has hit Bolivia hard as well, with more than 2000 infections and 55 deaths in a country of nine million, most having occurred during the southern hemisphere's winter (June through August).

When the virus first started to spread, the government resorted with what resources they could. In April, sudsy cartoon hands were everywhere, promoting hand-washing on billboards, at soccer games, in classrooms and on TV.

"Nayeli was taught at school, and then would remind us to do it at home," says Claudia Quispe, Nayeli's mum. It's not that she and her family didn't wash their hands before, explains Quispe, an indigenous Aymara shop owner, but they didn't do it as much or as thoroughly as they should have.

Within her family, Quispe thinks the public-health campaign has been a success: "Normally both Nayeli and my three-year-old son have constant stomachaches or diarrhea. But in the last few months, they just haven't had those issues," she says.

That's exactly how the program is supposed to work, says Therese Doley, a senior adviser for UNICEF's Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) project. "Kids are the key because they are great at carrying messages," Doley told Time.

For years, WASH has been trying to educate people, particularly in developing countries, about the benefits of a simple action like washing hands with soap. Diligent washing, especially at critical times - like after going to the bathroom and before meals - helps reduce the rate of diarrheal disease by more than 40 percent.

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