IFH-PATH is an exciting initiative to expand the International Scientific Forum on Home Hygiene into the USA and across North and South America.
Recognizing that while the role of effective hygiene in mitigating infectious agents, preventing disease, and promoting health is universal, the Pan-American population comprises a diversity of cultures, races, languages, and socioeconomic groups with unique habits, attitudes, and practices that require customized strategies and messaging. IFH-PATH will address home and everyday life hygiene from the viewpoint of the home and, more importantly, the family or household and their lifestyle, focusing on the actions that family members can take in their everyday lives to protect themselves from infectious diseases.
Our mission will be to continue the IFH commitment to applying the latest scientific understanding in developing and promoting practices that are based on risk management, together with the appropriate messaging for 21st century hygiene in Pan-American homes and public spaces. We will use the wealth of existing IFH resources and provide materials specifically for Pan America. Following the current IFH-UK-based model, we will create a Pan-American Home Hygiene Development Group which brings together experts from both public and private sectors.
Our goals are threefold:
- Develop hygiene resiliency by working towards the establishment of a leadership structure for home and community hygiene.
- Adopt and promote an effective and sustainable Targeted Hygiene approach for home and everyday life.
- Improve public understanding and best habits related to how and when to engage in hygiene practices.
We are very excited that our partner in this venture is the University of Arizona, which has a long history of conducting pioneering work in home and community hygiene and public health.