GENEVA ¨C One billion people worldwide still practice ¡°open defecation¡± and they need to be told that this leads to the spread of fatal diseases, U.N. experts said Thursday at the launch of a study on sanitation and drinking water.
¡± ¡®Excreta,¡¯ ¡®feces,¡¯ ¡®poo¡¯ ¡ª I could even say ¡®s¡ªt,¡¯ maybe ¡ª this is the root cause of so many diseases,¡± said Bruce Gordon, acting coordinator for sanitation and health at the World Health Organization.
Societies that practice open defecation ¡ª putting them at risk from cholera, diarrhoea, dysentery, hepatitis A and typhoid ¡ª tend to have huge income disparities as well as the world¡¯s highest death rates among children under age 5.
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