The purpose of this article was to obtain key inputs for the development of the first regional and global estimates of handwashing with soap following faecal exposure, in
view of updating the estimates of the burden of disease for the impact of this behaviour on diarrhoeal disease. The authors systematically reviewed the prevalence of the relevant hand dhygiene practices worldwide and updated the evidence linking hand hygiene practices to the prevention of diarrhoea. In both cases, they present adjusted estimates

Divisions between communities, disciplinary and practice, impede understanding of how complex interventions in health and other sectors actually work and slow the development and spread of more effective ones. This hypothesis was tested by re-reviewing a Cochrane-standard systematic review (SR) of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) interventions’ impact on child diarrhoea morbidity: can greater understanding of impacts and how they are achieved be gained when the same papers are reviewed jointly from health and development perspectives?

More than 761 million people rely on shared sanitation facilities. These have historically been excluded from international sanitation targets, regardless of the service level, due to concerns about acceptability, hygiene and access. Prompted by a proposed change in such policy, this review was undertaken to identify and summarize existing evidence that compares health outcomes associated with shared sanitation versus individual household latrines.