Families in the test neighborhoods received an average of 3.3 bars of soap per week for one year. During this period, the incidence of diarrhea among children in these neighborhoods fell 52 percent compared to that in the control group, no matter which soap was used. The incidence of pneumonia fell 48 percent. And the incidence of impetigo, a bacterial skin infection, fell 35 percent. These were stunning results. And they were achieved despite the illiteracy, the poverty, the crowding, and even the fact that, however much soap they used, people were still drinking and washing with contaminated
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