Thiruvananthapuram: In a pioneering global initiative, the cent percent literate Indian state of Kerala is all set to launch "Health In Your Hands", an ambitious anti-diarrhoea programme envisaging a sharp increase in the public behaviour of hand-washing with soap.

The Rs 10 crore two year global pilot, set to be launched this year by the Kerala government in association with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), UNICEF (United Nations Children's Emergency Fund) and World Bank, aims to increase the incidence of hand-washing with soap in the whole state by 50 per cent in the first one year itself, B Ashok, executive director, Kerala Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (KRWSSA) said.

"Hand-washing with soap is a much neglected practice that could save 2,50,000 lives every year in India and sharply reduce the incidence of diarrhoeal diseases, Cholera and dysentery," he told a visiting PTI correspondent adding that hand-washing with soap could reduce diarrhoeal incidence by at least 43 per cent according to LSHTM studies.

The total number of acute diarrhoeal attacks that came for treatment in Kerala in 2000 alone was 6,36,205 with 49 resultant deaths according to government statistics, which put the prevalence rate of acute diarrhoea at 19.27 per 1000 population.

Ashok said that diarrhoea was the second largest infection in the state after acute respiratory infection.

PTI