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Nadine Mather and Chloë Loubser
Covid-19 donation to help millions at state health clinics
Dettol has donated 400 hand wash stations and a million bars of soap to be used at public health facilities around the country. South Africa's leading and trusted hygiene and handwashing brand recognises that these items are crucial in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. Deputy Health Minister, Dr Joe Phaahla, officially received the donation. Dettol has already begun the deployment of the stations and soap directly to public health clinics countrywide.
Deputy Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla
The donation is part of the Dettol Protects the Frontline campaign, which was launched in partnership with the National Department of Health, the Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape Departments of Health, and healthcare impact company, Triple Eight. Dettol and Triple Eight’s campaign, with the support of the government, aims to help health workers in the firing line in the battle against Covid-19 and focuses on hand-hygiene behavioural change.
Kunal Sahgal, Dettol marketing director, Africa, says: “We know that handwashing with soap and clean water is the first line of defense against Covid-19 and many other communicable diseases. In addition to the government, health and hygiene companies like Reckitt Benckiser have had an important role to play in ensuring access to and availability of soaps, sanitisers, and disinfectants to help communities protect themselves.”
South Africa has been severely impacted by the pandemic, which has claimed over 13,600 lives. There are almost 74,000 active cases from a total of almost 620,000 confirmed cases.
The Dettol foot-pump handwashing stations include step-by-step instructions for correct handwashing with soap and clean water and will be placed at clinic entrances, where handwashing will be mandatory before entry. Together with the million bars of soap, this intervention will help approximately 200,000 individuals in public health facilities in South Africa each day. They will have better access to hygiene education and protection from the virus and other infectious diseases, like diarrhoea.
Dr Susan Louw, Dettol spokesperson and pathologist at the National Health Laboratory Service, explains: “Communicable diseases, including Covid-19 and diarrhoea, are transmitted by a failure to practise basic hygiene. Research shows that washing hands with soap and water is one of the most effective ways to prevent communicable diseases and can reduce diarrhoea deaths by more than 40%.”
Dettol soaps have been tested and proven to be effective against the Covid-19 virus. This is not the first intervention by the company. Sarika Modi, Triple Eight MD, says: “Over the past eight years, Triple Eight and Dettol have been supported by the Department of Health with a series of high impact school and clinic programmes, in an effort to reduce preventable deaths from hygiene-related illnesses and to give families the gift of better health.”
Another ongoing campaign is the Dettol New Mum Programme, which has, to date, reached over three million mothers in public clinics in SA, giving them access to life-saving hygiene and handwashing education. Dettol has also donated over three million bars of soap to help kickstart better practices in the home, at a time when good hygiene is critical to taking care of their new-born babies. The programme has also created jobs for previously unemployed mums who are trained as health workers.
