scholarly journals Improving water, sanitation and hygiene in health-care facilities, Liberia

2017 ◽  
Vol 95 (7) ◽  
pp. 526-530 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nana Mensah Abrampah ◽  
Maggie Montgomery ◽  
April Baller ◽  
Francis Ndivo ◽  
Alex Gasasira ◽  
...  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edgar Mugema Mulogo ◽  
Micheal Matte ◽  
Andrew Wesuta ◽  
Fred Bagenda ◽  
Richard Apecu ◽  
...  

There is a paucity of information on the state of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) at health care facilities in Uganda. A survey on WASH service availability was conducted at 50 health care facilities across 4 districts of rural southwestern Uganda between September and November 2015. The main water points at the majority (94%) of the health care facilities were improved sources, while improved toilets were available at 96% of the health care facilities visited. Hospitals had the poorest toilet to patient ratio (1 : 63). Only 38% of the health care facilities had hand washing facilities at the toilets. The lack of hand washing facilities was most prominent at the level IV health centre toilets (71%). Hand washing facilities were available at other points within most (76%) of the health care facilities. However, both water and soap were present at only 24% of these health care facilities. The poor toilet to patient/caregiver ratios particularly in the high volume health care facilities calls for the provision of cheaper options for improved sanitation in these settings. Priority should also be given to the sustainable provision of hygiene amenities such as soap for hand washing particularly the high patient volume health care facilities, in this case the level IV health centres and hospitals.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (8) ◽  
pp. e0256086
Author(s):  
Aiggan Tamene

Background Quality water, sanitation, and hygiene facilities act as barricades to the transmission of COVID-19 in health care facilities. These facilities ought to also be available, accessible, and functional in temporary treatment centers. Despite numerous studies on health care facilities, however, there is limited information on the status of WASH facilities in such centers. Methods The assessment of health care facilities for the COVID-19 response checklist and key informant interviews, were used for data collection. 35 treatment centers in Southern Ethiopia were surveyed. Eightkey informants were interviewed to gain an understanding of the WASH conditions in the treatment centers. The Quantitative data was entered using EPI-INFO 7 and exported to SPSS 20 for analysis. Results are presented using descriptive statistics. Open Code 4.02 was used for the thematic analysis of the qualitative data. Results Daily water supply interruptions occurred at 27 (77.1%) of the surveyed sites. Only 30 (85.72%) had bathrooms that were segregated for personnel and patients, and only 3 (3.57%) had toilets that were handicapped accessible. 20(57.2%) of the treatment centers did not have a hand hygiene protocol that satisfied WHO guidelines. In terms of infection prevention and control, 16 (45.71%) of the facilities lacked adequate personal protective equipment stocks. Between urban and rural areas, there was also a significant difference in latrine maintenance, hand hygiene protocol design and implementation, and incineration capacity. Conclusion The results reveal crucial deficiencies in the provision of WASH in the temporary COVID-19 treatment centers. Efforts to improve WASH should offer priority to hygiene service interventions to minimize the risk of healthcare-acquired infections. The sustainable provision of hygiene services, such as hand washing soap, should also be given priority.


Author(s):  
Sudharshini Subramaniam ◽  
T. S. Selvavinayagam

Background: Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) is one of the important components of Sustainable Development Goals which is essential for achieving any global health-related goals. WASH in health care facilities is prioritized as a necessary input to achieve health goals. Supportive Supervision has been established as an effective intervention in improving the performance of health care workers. This paper evaluates the role of supportive supervision in improving WASH facilities in the health care facilities of high priority districts of Tamil Nadu.Methods: The effectiveness of supportive supervision in improving WASH facilities was assessed through a pre-post experimental research design. World Health Organization proposed steps were followed while planning for the supportive supervision. Supervisory visits were made using checklists in all secondary level public health facilities in 7 High Priority Districts which were chosen based on the preliminary WASH survey conducted by UNICEF. The same health facilities were revisited after 3 months and supervised using the same checklist.Results: In the first supervisory visit, 41.6% of the health facilities (57 out of 137 facilities) were non- functional in terms of WASH score, while only 5.8% (8 out of 137 facilities) were fully functional. In the second visit, proportion of non- functional facilities had dropped from 41.6% to 7.3% and there has been an increase in the partially functional (52.6% to 71.5%) and fully functional facilities (5.8% to 21.2%) which was found to be statistically significant.Conclusions: Supportive supervision was able to show a significant improvement in the WASH facilities in all types of facilities. 


Author(s):  
Sanja Bijelović ◽  
Valentina Grossi ◽  
Enkhtsetseg Shinee ◽  
Oliver Schmoll ◽  
Dragana Jovanović ◽  
...  

Abstract Provision of safe water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services in health care facilities is a priority at the global, national, and local levels. To inform improvements planning, conditions of WASH, waste management, and environmental cleaning were assessed in 81 facilities in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, Serbia, as part of a nationally representative survey in 2019. The survey included on-site checks, structured interviews, and drinking-water quality analysis. WHO/UNICEF indicators for WASH service levels and an advanced service level defined at the national level were applied. The results showed that all investigated facilities provided basic water services; 94% of facilities provided basic hygiene and waste management services; 58 and 2%, respectively, provided basic cleaning and sanitation services. Only 1% of investigated facilities met the basic level for all five WASH dimensions. Advanced service levels were only met for hygiene, waste management, and/or cleaning in 15–38% of facilities. In 33% of health care facilities, drinking-water quality was not in compliance with the national standards. The results revealed that there is a need for increased awareness and efforts to ensure basic provisions for sanitation, environmental cleaning, and drinking-water safety.


Tehnika ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
pp. 143-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dragana Jovanovic ◽  
Ivana Ristanovic-Ponjavic

Author(s):  
Mitsuaki Hirai ◽  
Victor Nyamandi ◽  
Charles Siachema ◽  
Nesbert Shirihuru ◽  
Lovemore Dhoba ◽  
...  

The availability of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services is a key prerequisite for quality care and infection prevention and control in health care facilities (HCFs). In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance and urgency of enhancing WASH coverage to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission and other healthcare-associated infections. As a part of COVID-19 preparedness and response interventions, the Government of Zimbabwe, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and civil society organizations conducted WASH assessments in 50 HCFs designated as COVID-19 isolation facilities. Assessments were based on the Water and Sanitation for Health Facility Improvement Tool (WASH FIT), a multi-step framework to inform the continuous monitoring and improvement of WASH services. The WASH FIT assessments revealed that one in four HCFs did not have adequate services across the domains of water, sanitation, health care waste, hand hygiene, facility environment, cleanliness and disinfection, and management. The sanitation domain had the largest proportion of health care facilities with poor service coverage (42%). Some of the recommendations from this assessment include the provision of sufficient water for all users, Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM)- and disability-friendly sanitation facilities, handwashing facilities, waste collection services, energy for incineration or waste treatment facilities, cleaning supplies, and financial resources for HCFs. WASH FIT may be a useful tool to inform WASH interventions during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.


2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
JAMIL AHMED KHAN ◽  
RAJINDER PAUL

Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir is a reservoir of enormous natural resources including the wealth of medicinal plants. The present paper deals with 12 medicinal plant species belonging to 8 genera of angiosperms used on pneumonia in cattle such as cows, sheep, goats and buffaloes in different areas of Poonch district. Due to poverty and nonavailability of modern health care facilities, the indigenous people of the area partially or fully depend on surrounding medicinal plants to cure the different ailments of their cattles. Further research on modern scientific line is necessary to improve their efficacy, safety and validation of the traditional knowledge.


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