Global Handwashing Day

It is Global Hand Washing Day today and we've chosen to mark the date by highlighting material from a recent library acquisition of African health posters, a number of which remind us all of the importance of hand washing and basic sanitation.

For instance, the simple act of washing hands with soap (752738i) and segregation of toilet facilities (756161i) can prevent common ailments in children like diarrhoea associated with cholera (755196i), eye infections (755601i) and since 2000, avian flu (755530i).



Personal hygiene was key to the 2000 Sara Campaign, an initiative aimed at adolescent girls developed in 10 countries of Eastern and Southern Africa with UNICEF assistance. Originally a radio series, the programme branched out into animated films, comic books, storybooks, audiocassettes, guides and posters. (Source: www.unicef.org/lifeskills/index).

Hand washing with soap is said to be the most effective and cheapest way to prevent diarrhoea (associated with cholera and typhoid fever) and acute respiratory infections (like TB and pneumonia). Such infections take the lives of millions of children in developing countries each year, according to the Global Public-Private Partnership for Hand Washing who initiated Global Handwashing Day (GHD) in 2008. Posters are an essential way of promoting the routine which, it appears, is seldom practiced in some areas yet could save more lives than any single vaccine or medical intervention. (Source: http://globalhandwashingday.org/).


Apart from basic hygiene issues, the majority of posters from this collection highlight family planning issues (birth control, family size, contraception etc) but, not surprisingly, many other problems are revealed: malaria (755536i), polio (755539i ), TB (752340i), typhoid (755617i) avian flu (752086i), trachoma and blindness (752498i ), diabetes (755362i) and hypoglyemia (755464i).







Less commonly depicted are issues concerning female circumcision (755185i and 755386i ), genital mutilation (752291i), and in 2001, the ‘flying toilet’ problem in Kibera slums (755701i, and 755711i).

Details of our collection of African health posters can be seen in the Wellcome Library catalogue.

Images:

A girl washing her hands in a bowl above a tap in a washing cubicle; health education in Ethiopia. Colour lithograph by Health Education Centre (?), ca. 2000, Wellcome Library ref. 752738i

School children visiting a segregated corrugated toilet and washing their hands: hygiene in Kenya. Colour lithograph by Ministry of Health, Kenya, ca. 2000, Wellcome Library ref. 756161i

Women preparing a chicken and washing their hands: preventing avian flu in Kenya. Colour lithograph by Ministry of Health, ca. 2006, Wellcome Library ref. 755530i

A girl holds a chicken on a plate as a man washes his hands: protecting against avian flu in Kenya. Colour lithograph by UNICEF and Maskew Miller Longman, ca. 2000, Wellcome Library ref. 755918i

Campaign against female genital mutilation in Djibouti. Colour lithograph by A. Rachid and A. Djama for Ministère de la Santé MGF project, ca. 2010, Wellcome Library ref. 752291i

Three toilets in the form of ducks in flight: appeal to improve sanitation in the slums of Kibera. Colour lithograph by AMREF, 2001, Wellcome Library ref. 755701i

Henrietta Lacks and HeLa

59 years ago today, Henrietta Lacks was diagnosed with cervical cancer. Few would have guessed the impact the cells taken from her tumour would have on cancer research, drug testing, and the discovery of vaccines.

Until 1951, no researcher had been able to grow human cells in culture for more than a few weeks. But Dr George Otto Gey of Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, USA, found that cells taken from Henrietta’s tumour grew outside of her body indefinitely, no doubt due to the aggressive nature of the tumour from which they came. He named these cells HeLa, after Henrietta, and sent them to his colleagues. HeLa was seen as a breakthrough, possibly even the cure for human cancer. Within two years of their initial discovery, 600,000 cultures were shipped for use in research.

One of the first applications of HeLa cells was in the discovery of the polio vaccine. The polio virus could grow in HeLa cells, which enabled the growth of the large amounts virus required to produce the polio vaccine, subsequently developed by Jonas Salk.

HeLa cells are an immortal cell line – they can be split and proliferated as many times as required without the quality of the cells deteriorating over time. They have an active version the enzyme telomerase during cell division, which prevents the shortening of telomeres that is thought to result in eventual cell death. This results in an endless supply of cells.

HeLa is still the most widely used human cancer cell line and it is estimated that the total number of HeLa cells that have been propagated in cell culture far exceeds the total number of cells that were in Henrietta Lacks's body. Henrietta died eight months after her cells were taken, never knowing the contribution she made to scientific research, or how she indirectly saved many lives.

(Wellcome Images holds a range of HeLa images. Shown above are HeLa cancer cells undergoing mitosis: click on the image for more information).

Author: Louise Crane