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Are good sanitation and hygiene practices enough to protect against infectious diseases?

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Common Questions- parents pushes little girl on swing

No. Clean water, modern sanitation, and good hygiene practices like handwashing can slow the spread of and prevent infectious diseases. But immunization provides your body protective antibodies which can fight off diseases. Good hygiene cannot do that.source: 1

  • Good hygiene and improved sanitation make it harder for some germs to spread.source: 1 Handwashing with soap and water is an important part of staying healthy.source: 2 It could protect about 1 out of every 3 children who get sick with diarrhea.source: 3 In the United States, public water systems work to keep our water clean, which can help prevent some diseases from spreading through tap water.source: 4 Regularly cleaning surfaces in your home helps prevent the spread of germs that can make you sick.source: 5
  • Not all diseases can be prevented with soap and water because germs spread in many ways. It is hard to completely avoid germs that cause disease. You can get infected if you get them on your hands and then touch your eyes, nose, or mouth before getting a chance to clean your hands.source: 2 You can also get infected if you inhale them. Measles spreads when an infected person coughs or sneezes.source: 6 It can live in the air for up to 2 hours.source: 6 If other people who are not immune breathe the air or touch an infected surface, then they can easily be infected.source: 7 Tetanus, a type of bacteria that lives in the soil, can enter your body through a cut or wound, like from stepping on a sharp object or getting bitten by an animal.source: 8 Germs can also get into your food and drink because of things like unclean water or unwashed hands.source: 2 These germs can make you sick.
  • Clean water and handwashing do not prepare your child’s immune system to fight off a disease. Vaccines do.source: 9 Protecting your child from disease means getting them their immunizations.source: 9 And so-called “natural immunity”, or immunity that comes from getting infected with a disease, comes with serious risks.source: 9

Key Evidence

  • Improved sanitation and clean drinking water help keep children safe. But it is a first line of defense. In the early 1900s, many states started disinfecting their drinking water. This helped decrease the spread of many infectious diseases, but not all of them.source: 4 Despite clean drinking water, polio cases in the United States dramatically dropped after a vaccine was introduced in the mid-1950s.source: 10
  • Good sanitation can keep germs from thriving, but it cannot get rid of diseases. Improved sanitation reduces the places where germs can thrive and come in contact with humans. But sanitation, no matter how good, does not provide immunity.source: 1 When you get a vaccine, it sparks your immune response, helping your body fight off and remember the germ so it can protect you if it ever sees the germ again.source: 1
  • Good hygiene cannot do much once you have been exposed to a disease. Tetanus bacteria enter your body through a cut or wound, like from stepping on a sharp object or getting bitten by an animal.source: 8 Good hygiene and washing wounds can help heal the wound, but they can't always stop tetanus. Nearly all cases of tetanus are in people who are either unvaccinated or are not up to date with their vaccine.source: 11 The best way to protect your child from tetanus is to keep them up to date on their tetanus vaccines.
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Common Questions- young boy skateboards

A Deeper Dive: Comparing the Impact of Sanitation and Vaccines

Modern sanitation can slow the spread of some diseases. But vaccines can prevent diseases by training children’s bodies to fight off diseases. To see how the impact of sanitation compares with the impact of vaccination, here are some examples:

Examples of how the impact of sanitation compares with the impact of vaccination
DiseaseHow It SpreadsImpact of SanitationImpact of Vaccination
Hepatitis A

Eating contaminated food or water

Person-to-person contact

Handwashing can help prevent the spread of hepatitis A.source: 13 Handwashing does not help the body protect itself against the disease once the virus enters the body.Reduced hepatitis A cases by 95%source: 13
Measles

Breathing contaminated air (after infected person coughs or sneezes)

Touching infected surface then touching eyes, nose, or mouth

The virus is very contagious and lives in the air for up to 2 hours.source: 7 Handwashing is not enough to prevent the disease from spreading.Reduced measles cases by 99%source: 14
Rotavirus

Eating contaminated food

Touching contaminated object then putting hands in mouth

Washing hands, toys, and other surfaces can help prevent the spread of rotavirus.source: 15 Good hygiene does not help the body protect itself against the disease once the virus enters the body.

Protects 90% of children from severe rotavirus illness like diarrhea and vomitingsource: 16

Protects 95% of children from hospitalizationsource: 16

TetanusBacteria enter the body through broken skin (like stepping on a nail or through burns)Handwashing and bathing are not protective once the bacteria are under the skin.source: 17

Reduced deaths from tetanus by 99%source: 18,source: 19

Reduced tetanus cases by 95%source: 18,source: 19

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More information

Still have questions? Talk to your child’s doctor, nurse, or pharmacist.

Sources

  1. HHS: Vaccines Work
  2. CDC: About Handwashing
  3. CDC: Handwashing Facts
  4. CDC: About Drinking Water
  5. CDC: When and How to Clean and Disinfect Your Home
  6. FDA: Vaccination Is the Best Protection Against Measles
  7. CDC: How Measles Spreads
  8. CDC: Tetanus: Causes and How It Spreads
  9. CDC: Explaining How Vaccines Work
  10. CDC: Why CDC is Working to End Polio Globally
  11. CDC: Tetanus Surveillance and Trends
  12. CDC: Hepatitis A Basics
  13. CDC: Pink Book: Hepatitis A
  14. CDC: Measles Vaccination
  15. CDC: About Rotavirus
  16. CDC: Rotavirus Vaccination
  17. Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia: A Look at Each Vaccine: Diphtheria, Tetanus, and Pertussis Vaccines
  18. Clinical Practice and Cases in Emergency Medicine: The Quick and Dirty: A Tetanus Case Report
  19. CDC: MMWR: Tetanus Surveillance --- United States, 2001--2008
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