Cleanliness in the Home - preventing Disease and promoting Comfort; Good Health Lesson 5

Wherever we eat, cook, live and sleep - it is home. Keeping our home clean, tidy and insect free is good sense - a clean home prevents disease and promotes family comfort. I have lived in beautiful houses with bath, shower and indoor plumbing - I have slept on concrete floors on my overcoat and with my bag as a pillow on Charity field trips - I have experienced water flooding in my bedroom during an Indian monsoon rain, my overcoat having to be thrown because it grew a beard of grey mildew. I have slept in tiny rooms in squatter camps, with a bucket to wash from, and a communal outhouse. Wherever I have lived during my journeys has been my centre of happiness - my home. There is only one thing I ask - that it be clean.

It is a challenge to keep clean when the funds are tight, we are living in a camp or as a refugee. However it makes good sense; if we don't keep our home clean, we can contract disease, which can cause us illness, discomfort, pain, sometimes disability and sometimes death. So tips to prevent disease and keep cleanliness in the Home are invaluable.

Some basic Tips;
1. Do not let pigs or chickens come into the house or places where the children usually play
2. Do not let dogs lick children or climb up on their beds. Disease can be spread by dogs through fleas and ticks on them as well as by licking. Keep your dog clean by ensuring their fur is washed, and that they are properly dried after a bath. Leaving a dog undried after a bath - especially in a cold climate - can cause illness to the beloved pet. Be careful to use the correct product to wash your dog
3. Examine your family regularly for lice, whether head lice or body lice. Also, check that your children have not contracted worms which can show up in their bowel movements. It is best not to let your children use sand pits or outside areas as a toilet. Train them to use an outhouse or indoor toilet, and to wash their hands both before and after using the toilet
4. Do not spit on the floor or streets, as spit can spread disease. When you cough or sneeze, cover your mouth with your hand or a soft piece of paper. Throw away the tissue into a waste bin/ refuse bin. 
Wash your hands with soap and water, and dry them well after sneezing in them
5. If children or animals have a bowel movement near the house or in the house, clean it up at once with water and soap or a disinfectant
6. Examine the beds for bed bugs. If the mattresses have bed bugs, they will need to be cleaned and treated
7. Hang or spread blankets and sheets often in the sun. If you have bedbugs, wash the sheets and blankets, hang in the sun and iron well on the same day you clean and treat your mattresses
8. Examine your family for any sign of skin disease such as scabies and send them for treatment if any signs are present
9. Clean your house often. Sweep and wash the floors, walls and beneath the furniture. Fill in any cracks and holes in the floor or walls where scorpions, bedbugs, cockroaches or lice can hide
10. Don't let flies into the house or in the kitchen. They spread disease. Do not let them settle on food. Keep food covered and, if you are blessed to have a refrigerator or cold closet pantry, keep food well sealed there
11. Don't allow mosquitoes in the home. They spread malaria. Use mosquito nets at night if you are in a high mosquito area. Use insect repellant. Don't leave standing pools of water near your home - mosquitoes can breed there
12. If you have a flea infestation in the house, disinfect the house
13. If you have a termite problem in the foundations of your home, treat your home to rid yourself of the pest

Keep your home clean, and your home will be your refuge and protect the good health of both you and your family.