The Impact of Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Improvements on Hand Hygiene at Two Liberian Hospitals during the Recovery Phase of an Ebola Epidemic
Authors
Kanagasabai, UdhayashankarEnriquez, Kayla
Gelting, Richard
Malpiedi, Paul
Zayzay, Celina
Kendor, James
Fahnbulleh, Shirley
Cooper, Catherine
Gibson, Williamatta
Brown, Rose
Nador, Nadoris
Williams, Desmond E.
Chiriboga, David E.
Niescierenko, Michelle
UMass Chan Affiliations
Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiovascular MedicineDocument Type
Journal ArticlePublication Date
2021-03-25Keywords
Ebolainfection prevention and control (IPC)
low-resource setting
water sanitation and hygiene (WASH)
Environmental Public Health
Infectious Disease
International Public Health
Virus Diseases
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Show full item recordAbstract
Fourteen years of civil war left Liberia with crumbling infrastructure and one of the weakest health systems in the world. The 2014-2015 Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak exposed the vulnerabilities of the Liberian health system. Findings from the EVD outbreak highlighted the lack of infection prevention and control (IPC) practices, exacerbated by a lack of essential services such as water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) in healthcare facilities. The objective of this intervention was to improve IPC practice through comprehensive WASH renovations conducted at two hospitals in Liberia, prioritized by the Ministry of Health (MOH). The completion of renovations was tracked along with the impact of improvements on hand hygiene (HH) practice audits of healthcare workers pre- and post-intervention. An occurrence of overall HH practice was defined as the healthcare worker practicing compliant HH before and after the care for a single patient encounter. Liberia Government Hospital Bomi (LGH Bomi) and St. Timothy Government Hospital (St. Timothy) achieved World Health Organization (WHO) minimum global standards for environmental health in healthcare facilities as well as Liberian national standards. Healthcare worker (HCW) overall hand hygiene compliance improved from 36% (2016) to 89% (2018) at LGH Bomi hospital and from 86% (2016) to 88% (2018) at St. Timothy hospital. Improved WASH services and IPC practices in resource-limited healthcare settings are possible if significant holistic WASH infrastructure investments are made in these settings.Source
Kanagasabai U, Enriquez K, Gelting R, Malpiedi P, Zayzay C, Kendor J, Fahnbulleh S, Cooper C, Gibson W, Brown R, Nador N, Williams DE, Chiriboga D, Niescierenko M. The Impact of Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Improvements on Hand Hygiene at Two Liberian Hospitals during the Recovery Phase of an Ebola Epidemic. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Mar 25;18(7):3409. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18073409. PMID: 33806086; PMCID: PMC8037341. Link to article on publisher's site
DOI
10.3390/ijerph18073409Permanent Link to this Item
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14038/41840PubMed ID
33806086Related Resources
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Copyright © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Distribution License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.3390/ijerph18073409
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Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as Copyright © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).