Abstract:
Effective risk communication is essential for outbreak mitigation, as recently highlighted
during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Hand hygiene is one of the
proposed public health interventions to protect against severe acute respiratory syndrome
coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) acquisition and transmission along with social distancing,
improved ventilation, environmental cleaning, and wearing of masks. Improving hand
hygiene practices in the community requires an understanding of the socio-behavioural
context. This cross-sectional community survey in Soweto identified gaps in hand hygiene,
which can inform appropriate messaging at the community level. Only 42% of survey
respondents practiced adequate hand hygiene. Tailored educational messaging should be
targeted at young adults in particular, and the importance of soap for hand hygiene must be
emphasised for all age groups. Risk communication should expand to focus on preventing
multiple infectious diseases during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.
