Hand hygiene-Hand washing key to keeping infection at bay: Zimbabwe



 Hand washing  one of the most effective hygiene promotion activities 


Some books that cover hand washing and hygiene promotion in our library

Zimbabwe and Hand Washing


Zimbabwe cannot continue to lose children to preventable infections due to lack of hygiene awareness,
Director of Environmental Health Services in the Ministry of Health and Child Care Mr Goldberg Mangwadu made the remarks during the Global Hand Washing Day Commemorations held at Chitsere Primary School in Harare yesterday.
“Hand washing with soap is a simple action, but one that can make a big difference. I want everyone to stop, listen and act.
“Hand washing with soap is a simple solution to our nation’s health challenges — and we should ensure we spread the message as we commemorate 2015 Global Hand Washing Day,” he said.

Every year more than 3.5 million children worldwide die before they reach the age of five because of diarrhoea and pneumonia.
by  Abigail Mawonde Herald Correspondent
EXTRACTED FROM http://www.herald.co.zw/zim-marks-global-hand-washing-day/


Exploring the gap between hand washing knowledge and practices in Bangladesh: a cross-sectional comparative study bySifat E RabbiEmail author and Nepal C De

  • This study compared hand washing knowledge and practices in BRAC’s water; sanitation and hygiene (WASH) programme areas over time.

    This study is a cross-sectional comparative study between baseline (2006), midline (2009) and end-line (2011) surveys in 50 sub-districts from the first phase of the programme. 
     Data were collected from households through face-to-face interview using a pre-tested questionnaire. Respondents were the adult female members of the same households, who had knowledge of day-to-day household activities related to water, sanitation and hygiene.

    A gap between perception and practice of proper hand washing practices with soap was identified in the study areas. Hand washing practice with soap before eating was much lower than after defecation. In baseline data, 8% reported to wash their hands with soap which significantly increased to 22% in end line. Hand washing knowledge and practices before cooking food, before serving food and while handling babies is considerably limited than other critical times. A multivariate analysis shows that socio-economic factors including education of household head and respondent, water availability and access to media have strong positive association with hand washing with soap.

    Gap between knowledge and practice still persists in hand washing practices. Long term and extensive initiatives can aware people about the effectiveness of hand washing.
     EXTRACTED FROM ..... http://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2458-13-89


Closing doors stops deadly surgical site infections in Uganda

May 2016
In Uganda, taking a bath before surgery, closing the door to the operating theatre and ensuring surgeons clean their hands properly can be the difference between life and death. A study involving more than 650 surgical patients, showed the rate of infections halved after new measures were introduced. As a result, patients are spending less time in hospital, resulting in cost-savings for both the patient and the hospital.


Closing the doors to operating theatres, reducing the number of people in theatre, limiting traffic in and out of theatre, and ensuring patients bathe before surgery, are all helping to reduce the number of infections in surgical patients. Other measures include improving surgical skin preparation by using a locally produced alcohol-based antiseptic and waiting for the skin to dry before incision, and using appropriate surgical antibiotic prophylaxis.

The results are encouraging. In a 2014 study involving more than 650 surgical patients, the rate of infections halved after the new measures were introduced. As a result, patients are spending less time in hospital, resulting in a cost-saving both to them and the hospital.
“Patients used to spend a lot of time and money, and a lot of health workers’ time was spent on management of surgical site infections,” said Gabriel Okumu, Kisiizi Hospital’s general surgeon. “The change has been remarkable.”
Surgical site infections are the most common health care-associated infections in low-and middle-income countries, affecting up to one third of patients who undergo surgery.

Hand hygiene is one of the key measures for ensuring infections are minimised. On 5 May every year, Hand Hygiene Day, all 300 members of Kisiizi’s staff receive training to help them care safely for patients with peripheral lines, central lines, endotracheal tubes and urinary catheters.
The staff also go out to schools and community health centres to promote hand hygiene in the community.

Apart from reducing the number of infections, Kisiizi’s doctors have also reduced the unnecessary use of antibiotics after surgery, helping to prevent the development of antibiotic resistance. About 24% of patients now receive post-operative antibiotics, down from 93% before the new measures were introduced.
“Hand hygiene has been a critical part of the success at Kisiizi,” said Dr Benedetta Allegranzi, who leads SUSP at WHO in Geneva. “The fact that they produced their own alcohol-based handrub is even more impressive.”

  “One of the things we’re interested in is cultural change,” she said. “We carry out regular staff questionnaires to see what effects the partnership has had and to assess whether there has been a change of culture in terms of patient safety.

Key documents

WHO Guidelines on Hand Hygiene in Health Care (revised Aug 2009)
  • Full version http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2009/9789241597906_eng.pdf

Videos and podcasts

     EXTRACTED FROM WHO
http://www.who.int/features/2016/surgical-site-infections/en/


     

Comments

Post a Comment