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One of the best defenses against infectious disease is one of the most simple – handwashing. Still, despite years of global public awareness campaigns, handwashing rates remain low. Caregivers of young children in low-income, developing world settings are found to wash their hands only 17 percent of the time after using the toilet.

As part of the activities to support SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands Day on May 5, 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) is inviting healthcare facilities to participate in two global surveys.

Researchers at the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences at Tufts and Tufts University School of Medicine (TUSM) have uncovered a mechanism that may help explain the severe forms of schistosomiasis, or snail fever, which is caused by schistosome worms and is one of the most prevalent parasitic diseases in the world. The study in mice, published online in The Journal of Immunology, may also offer targets for intervention and amelioration of the disease.