About Community Hygiene Concern

Community Hygiene Concern (CHC) is a charity set up in 1988 to protect people and pets from parasites, drawing together the expertise of all relevant parties which will help achieve this aim. We work particularly on pediculosis (especially head louse infestation), scabies, pesticides for topical use, enterobiasis (threadworm infection), toxocariasis and toxoplasmosis. The life cycle of both 'toxos' involves domestic pets, dogs and cats in the case of toxocariasis and cats for toxoplasmosis.

Our current work centres on:

• head lice which produce symptoms of minor medical consequence, but cause enormous social distress.
• Toxocara (dog and cat roundworm) which can give rise to serious human illness including blindness.

Both thrive in a society which cannot bear to think about personal parasites, is too embarrassed to contemplate pet hygiene and depends on a 'pill for every ill' to remedy manifest disease rather than prevention. Most of the community are open to infection and children are particularly vulnerable.

The work of CHC has been part funded by the UK Department of Health since 1990, with specific funding for the Bug Busting Programme against head lice since 1995.

The King's Fund has supported our work since 1990.

We won one of the ten 1998 Smith Kline Beecham IMPACT awards for excellence in community health. The UK National Lottery Charities Board (Community Fund) supported our Bug Busting Community Involvement project.