Using the Water and Sanitation for Health Facility Improvement Tool (WASH FIT) in Zimbabwe: A Cross-Sectional Study of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Services in 50 COVID-19 Isolation Facilities

Hirai, Mitsuaki; Nyamandi, Victor K.; Siachema, Charles; Shirihuru, N.; Dhoba, Lovemore; Baggen, Alison; Kanyowa, Trevor; Mwenda, John; Dodzo, Lilian Gertrude; Manangazira, Portia; Chirume, Musiwarwo; Overmars, Marc; Honda, Y.; Chouhan, Ajay; Nzara, Boniface; Vavirai, Placidia; Sithole, Zvanaka; Ngwakum, Paul Akisa; Chitsungo, Shelly; Cronin, Aidan A.

doi:10.3390/ijerph18115641

Cited by 20 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 15 publications

(15 reference statements)

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“…According to the WHO standard, functional hand hygiene facilities should be available at all critical points of the HCFs [7]. Less than a quarter (21.4%) of the HCFs had functional handwashing facilities (with water and soap) both in latrines and at point of care, which was lower than the studies conducted in Africa (28%) [41], Zimbabwe (30%) (26), LMICs [12], sub-Saharan Africa (67%) [8], Rwanda (32%) [40], Nigeria (66%), Rwanda (65%), Zimbabwe (58%) [7] and Ethiopia (74.28%) [44] but higher than Niger (4%) [7].…”

Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 99%

“…In May 2019, the World Health Assembly passed a resolution to accelerate global efforts on WASH in HCFs. This resolution led to a subsequent global meeting where countries presented their national commitments with concrete actions [26]. The government of Ethiopia has also implemented various COVID-19 prevention measures, such as partial or total lockdown, physical distancing, handwashing, and others [27][28][29].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Access to and challenges in water, sanitation, and hygiene in healthcare facilities during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ethiopia: A mixed-methods evaluation

et al. 2022

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Background Inadequate water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) in healthcare facilities (HCFs) have an impact on the transmission of infectious diseases, including COVID-19 pandemic. But, there is limited data on the status of WASH facilities in the healthcare settings of Ethiopia. Therefore, this study aimed to assess WASH facilities and related challenges in the HCFs of Northeastern Ethiopia during the early phase of COVID-19 pandemic. Methods An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted from July to August 2020. About 70 HCFs were selected using a simple random sampling technique. We used a mixed approach of qualitative and quantitative study. The quantitative data were collected by an interviewer-administered structured questionnaire and observational checklist, whereas the qualitative data were collected using a key-informant interview from the head of HCFs, janitors, and WASH coordinator of the HCFs. The quantitative data were entered in EpiData version 4.6 and exported to Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25.0 for data cleaning and analysis. The quantitative data on access to WASH facilities was reported using WHO ladder guidelines, which include no access, limited access, and basic access, whereas the qualitative data on challenges to WASH facilities were triangulated with the quantitative result. Results From the survey of 70 HCFs, three-fourths 53 (75.7%) were clinics, 12 (17.2%) were health centers, and 5 (7.1%) were hospitals. Most (88.6%) of the HCFs had basic access to water supply. The absence of a specific budget for WASH facilities, non-functional water pipes, the absence of water-quality monitoring systems, and frequent water interruptions were the major problems with water supply, which occurred primarily in clinics and health centers. Due to the absence of separate latrine designated for disabled people, none of the HCFs possessed basic sanitary facilities. Half (51.5%) of the HCFs had limited access to sanitation facilities. The major problems were the absence of separate latrines for healthcare workers and clients, as well as female and male staffs, an unbalanced number of functional latrines for the number of clients, non-functional latrines, poor cleanliness and misuse of the latrine. Less than a quarter of the HCFs 15 (21.4%) had basic access to handwashing facilities, while half 35 (50%) of the HCFs did not. The lack of functional handwashing facilities at expected sites and misuse of the facilities around the latrine, including theft of supplies by visitors, were the two most serious problems with hygiene facilities. Conclusion Despite the fact that the majority of HCFs had basic access to water, there were problems in their sanitation and handwashing facilities. The lack of physical infrastructure, poor quality of facilities, lack of separate budget to maintain WASH facilities, and inappropriate utilization of WASH facilities were the main problems in HCFs. Further investigation should be done to assess the enabling factors and constraints for the provision, use, and maintenance of WASH infrastructure at HCFs.

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Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Access to and challenges in water, sanitation, and hygiene in healthcare facilities during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ethiopia: A mixed-methods evaluation

et al. 2022

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“…Only 8% of the facilities scored good and 42% scored poor in WASH domains. 27 However, some studies in developed countries, including the United States, reported the need for improvement in adherence to COVID-19 IPC measures. For instance, a study in the state of Georgia assessed adherence to IPC guidelines in 24 health facilities and classified them into higher and lower prevalence facilities depending on the prevalence of COVID-19 cases.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene and Infection Prevention and Control in Jordanian Hospitals in the Context of COVID-19: A National Assessment

Saadeh

Khader

Alyahya

et al. 2022

RMHP

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Purpose To identify areas that need improvement in Jordanian health centers regarding infection prevention and control (IPC) programs; water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services; and other protective measures, especially in the context of coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Methods This is a national assessment study that comprised hospitals of different sectors in Jordan, including, Ministry of Health (MoH), private, and military hospitals. The study included 23 Jordanian hospitals. Assessment tools were developed and adapted mainly from the WASH Facility Improvement Tool (WASH FIT) and other tools. Hospitals were assessed to meet targets based on whether indicators were fully met, partially met, or not met. Results The mean percentage of the 150 indicators that met the standards was 83.2% (72.6% for MoH, 84.5% for private, and 90.4% for military hospitals). The percentage of indicators, both WASH/IPC and training and education indicators, that met the targets were higher in military hospitals than in MoH and private hospitals. However, in context of COVID-19, only 64.7% of indicators related to precautionary measures were met by all hospitals. Conclusion The data available on WASH/IPC in Jordan are scarce, and the study findings will help in preventing severe consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. There is scope for improvement in many WASH/IPC aspects, and urgent actions should be taken, especially to fill the gaps in COVID-19 precautionary measures.

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“…These are more likely to affect the dignity and privacy of users. Unavailability of insufficient gender-sensitive sanitation facilities, the menstrual hygiene toilets, was also shown in is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in (which was not certified by peer review) studies conducted in Uganda and Zimbabwe (21,24), the proportion of sanitation facilities for menstrual use and disabled user remains poor. This could be due to that the essence of WASH for all might not be given emphasis and the design of the facility not considering user sensitive sanitation facility.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Healthcare Facility Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Service Status and Barriers in Ethiopia: It’s Implication for COVID-19 pandemic and Healthcare Acquired Infection Prevention

Derso

Addis

Mengistie

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Background: Despite the public health significance of healthcare Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) service in reduction of nosocomial infection and improving quality of care is paramount little is known on the status of WASH service in a health care facility at the time of pandemic and the barriers that hinder the service in the health care setting in Ethiopia. Objective: The aim of this study was to assess status of basic water, sanitation, hand hygiene, healthcare waste management, and environmental cleanliness service and its barriers at public health care facilities in the city of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 2022. Methods: Convergent parallel mixed design was conducted among 86 public health care facilities located in Addis Ababa city. Stratified sampling technique was used to select health care facilities. A semi-structured observational checklist tool was used to measure the availability of services. For the qualitative study, semi-structured interview was conducted among 16 key informants and thematic data analysis was done to identify the barriers. Finding: This study found that no one healthcare facility had basic access to overall WASH services. The independent WASH domain analysis showed that, about 86% healthcare facilities had basic water access, 100% had limited sanitation access, 88.4 % had limited hand hygiene service, 69.8% had limited healthcare waste management service, and 97.7% had limited environmental cleaning service. Built environments of WASH infrastructure; Resource availability and allocation; leadership and stakeholder participation; inadequate training and poor behaviour; and legal issues were identified barriers to provision of basic healthcare WASH services. Conclusion and recommendation: The availability of healthcare WASH services in Addis Ababa city remains far from the pace to achieve the sustainable goal target by 2025. The limited access to WASH services makes worsening the prevention and control of COVID-19 pandemics, healthcare acquired infection in the facility. The country need to act now on more financial investment, capacity building, facilitating committed leadership, and participation of stakeholders to ensuring basic WASH services at healthcare setting.

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Using the Water and Sanitation for Health Facility Improvement Tool (WASH FIT) in Zimbabwe: A Cross-Sectional Study of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Services in 50 COVID-19 Isolation Facilities

Cited by 20 publications

References 15 publications

Access to and challenges in water, sanitation, and hygiene in healthcare facilities during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ethiopia: A mixed-methods evaluation

Access to and challenges in water, sanitation, and hygiene in healthcare facilities during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ethiopia: A mixed-methods evaluation

Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene and Infection Prevention and Control in Jordanian Hospitals in the Context of COVID-19: A National Assessment

Healthcare Facility Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Service Status and Barriers in Ethiopia: It’s Implication for COVID-19 pandemic and Healthcare Acquired Infection Prevention

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