Financial and economic costs of healthcare associated infections in Africa.

BACKGROUND: Healthcare associated infections (HAI) remain a global health challenge and have elevated rates in Sub-Saharan Africa. HAIs impact patients and their families by causing illness, prolonged hospital stay, potential disability, excess costs and sometimes death. The costs of HAI are increasing due to spreading antimicrobial resistance. A major risk factor for HAIs is lack of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), environmental cleaning and healthcare waste management. In Sub-Saharan Africa these services are lacking in at least 50% of healthcare facilities. AIM: This study estimated the costs associated with HAIs at national level in fourteen countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. METHODS: Economic methodologies were employed to estimate the medical costs, productivity losses and value of premature death from HAIs, drawing on national statistics and published studies to populate the economic model. RESULTS: In 2022, the number of HAIs was estimated at 4.8 million, resulting in 500,000 deaths. Health-related economic losses amounted to US$13 billion per year, equivalent to 1.14% of combined GDP and US$15.7 per capita. Healthcare costs were US$500 per HAI and represented 5.6% of total health expenditure. The costs of providing basic WASH were US$0.91 per capita, which, if they reduced HAIs by 50%, resulted in benefit-cost ratios of 1.6 (financial health care savings only) and 8.6 (including all economic benefits). CONCLUSION: HAIs have a major health and economic burden on African societies, and a significant share can be prevented. It is critical that health policy makers and practitioners dedicate policy space, resources, and training to address HAIs.

Recommendations for hand hygiene in community settings: a scoping review of current international guidelines.

BACKGROUND: Hand hygiene is an important measure to prevent disease transmission. OBJECTIVE: To summarise current international guideline recommendations for hand hygiene in community settings and to assess to what extent they are consistent and evidence based. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA: We included international guidelines with one or more recommendations on hand hygiene in community settings-categorised as domestic, public or institutional-published by international organisations, in English or French, between 1 January 1990 and 15 November 2021. DATA SOURCES: To identify relevant guidelines, we searched the WHO Institutional Repository for Information Sharing Database, Google, websites of international organisations, and contacted expert organisations and individuals. CHARTING METHODS: Recommendations were mapped to four areas related to hand hygiene: (1) effective hand hygiene; (2) minimum requirements; (3) behaviour change and (4) government measures. Recommendations were assessed for consistency, concordance and whether supported by evidence. RESULTS: We identified 51 guidelines containing 923 recommendations published between 1999 and 2021 by multilateral agencies and international non-governmental organisations. Handwashing with soap is consistently recommended as the preferred method for hand hygiene across all community settings. Most guidelines specifically recommend handwashing with plain soap and running water for at least 20 s; single-use paper towels for hand drying; and alcohol-based hand rub (ABHR) as a complement or alternative to handwashing. There are inconsistent and discordant recommendations for water quality for handwashing, affordable and effective alternatives to soap and ABHR, and the design of handwashing stations. There are gaps in recommendations on soap and water quantity, behaviour change approaches and government measures required for effective hand hygiene. Less than 10% of recommendations are supported by any cited evidence. CONCLUSION: While current international guidelines consistently recommend handwashing with soap across community settings, there remain gaps in recommendations where clear evidence-based guidance might support more effective policy and investment.

Estimating the cost of achieving basic water, sanitation, hygiene, and waste management services in public health-care facilities in the 46 UN designated least-developed countries: a modelling study.

BACKGROUND: An alarming number of public health-care facilities in low-income and middle-income countries lack basic water, sanitation, hygiene (WASH), and waste management services. This study estimates the costs of achieving full coverage of basic WASH and waste services in existing public health facilities in the 46 UN designated least-developed countries (LDCs). METHODS: In this modelling study, in-need facilities were quantified by combining published counts of public facilities with estimated basic WASH and waste service coverage. Country-specific per-facility capital and recurrent costs to deliver basic services were collected via survey of country WASH experts and officials between Sept 24 and Dec 24, 2020. Baseline cost estimates were modelled and discounted by 5% per year. Key assumptions were adjusted to produce lower and upper estimates, including adjusting the discount rate to 8% and 3% per year, respectively. FINDINGS: An estimated US$6·5 billion to $9·6 billion from 2021 to 2030 is needed to achieve full coverage of basic WASH and waste services in public health facilities in LDCs. Capital costs are $2·9 billion to $4·8 billion and recurrent costs are $3·6 billion to $4·8 billion over this time period. A mean of $0·24-0·40 per capita in capital investment is needed each year, and annual operations and maintenance costs are expected to increase from $0·10 in 2021 to $0·39-0·60 in 2030. Waste management accounts for the greatest share of costs, requiring $3·7 billion (46·6% of the total) in the baseline estimates, followed by $1·8 billion (23·1%) for sanitation, $1·5 billion (19·5%) for water, and $845 million (10·7%) for hygiene. Needs are greatest for non-hospital facilities ($7·4 billion [94%] of $7·9 billion) and for facilities in rural areas ($5·3 billion [68%]). INTERPRETATION: Investment will need to increase to reach full coverage of basic WASH and waste services in public health facilities. Financial needs are modest compared with current overall health and WASH spending, and better service coverage will yield substantial health benefits. To sustain services and prevent degradation and early replacement, countries will need to routinely budget for operations and maintenance of WASH and waste management assets. FUNDING: WHO (including underlying grants from the governments of Japan, the Netherlands, and the UK), World Bank (including an underlying grant from the Global Water Security and Sanitation Partnership), and UNICEF. TRANSLATIONS: For the Arabic, French and Portuguese translations of the abstract see Supplementary Materials section.

Building on a decade of progress in water, sanitation and hygiene to control, eliminate and eradicate neglected tropical diseases.

Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) are essential for the control and elimination of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). The forthcoming NTD road map 'Ending the neglect to attain the Sustainable Development Goals: a road map for neglected tropical diseases 2021-2030' encourages cross-sectoral collaboration and includes cross-cutting targets on WASH. This commentary reflects on collaborative efforts between the NTD and WASH sectors over the past years and encourages strengthened partnerships to support the new road map and achieve the 2030 agenda ambition of leaving no one behind.

Childhood stunting and cognitive effects of water and sanitation in Indonesia.

Close to 100 million Indonesians lack access to improved sanitation, while 33 million live without improved drinking water. Indonesia is home to the second largest number of open defecators in the world, behind India. Repeated exposure to fecal pathogens, especially common in areas where open defecation is practiced, can cause poor absorption and nutrient loss through diarrhea and poor gut function, leading to undernutrition, growth stunting and irreversible impairment of health, development, learning and earnings - the effects of which outlast a lifetime. Using data from a sample of over six thousand children in the Indonesia Family Life Survey (IFLS), a household socioeconomic panel representative of over 80 percent of the Indonesian population, we examine the relationship between poor household and community water and sanitation services and childhood stunting and cognitive development. We find that children living in households that have access to improved sanitation when they are under 2 years of age are approximately 5 percentage points less likely to end up being stunted. Community rates of sanitation are also important. Children living in open defecation free communities during this critical development window are more than 10 percentage points less likely to be stunted, than children in communities where all other households defecate in the open. Further, cognitive test scores are adversely affected by open defecation. These findings suggest that owning a toilet and living in a community where most of one's neighbors own a toilet are important drivers of child growth and development.

Assessing the Demand for Plastic Latrine Slabs in Rural Kenya.

Improving access to safe and affordable sanitation facilities is a global health priority that is essential for meeting the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals. To promote the use of improved sanitation in rural and low-income settings, plastic latrine slabs provide a simple option for upgrading traditional pit latrines. The International Finance Corporation/World Bank Selling Sanitation program estimated that plastic slabs would have a 34% annual growth, with a market size of US$2.53 million in Kenya by 2017. In this study, we examined the commercial viability of these plastic latrine slabs in rural Kenya by evaluating a financing and distribution model intervention, documenting household slab sales to date, and assessing consumer exposure and perceptions. We also determined household willingness to pay through a real-money auction with 322 households. We found that no households in our study area had purchased the plastic slabs. The primary barriers to slab sales were limited marketing activities and low demand compared with the sales price: households were willing to pay an average of US$5 compared with a market price of US$16. Therefore, current household demand for the plastic latrine slabs in rural Kenya is too low to support commercial distribution. Further efforts are required to align the price of plastic latrine slabs with consumer demand in this setting, such as additional demand creation, product financing, and public sector investment.

Do Sanitation Improvements Reduce Fecal Contamination of Water, Hands, Food, Soil, and Flies? Evidence from a Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial in Rural Bangladesh.

Sanitation improvements have had limited effectiveness in reducing the spread of fecal pathogens into the environment. We conducted environmental measurements within a randomized controlled trial in Bangladesh that implemented individual and combined water treatment, sanitation, handwashing (WSH) and nutrition interventions (WASH Benefits, NCT01590095). Following approximately 4 months of intervention, we enrolled households in the trial's control, sanitation and combined WSH arms to assess whether sanitation improvements, alone and coupled with water treatment and handwashing, reduce fecal contamination in the domestic environment. We quantified fecal indicator bacteria in samples of drinking and ambient waters, child hands, food given to young children, courtyard soil and flies. In the WSH arm, Escherichia coli prevalence in stored drinking water was reduced by 62% (prevalence ratio = 0.38 (0.32, 0.44)) and E. coli concentration by 1-log (Δlog10 = -0.88 (-1.01, -0.75)). The interventions did not reduce E. coli along other sampled pathways. Ambient contamination remained high among intervention households. Potential reasons include noncommunity-level sanitation coverage, child open defecation, animal fecal sources, or naturalized E. coli in the environment. Future studies should explore potential threshold effects of different levels of community sanitation coverage on environmental contamination.

Fecal Indicator Bacteria along Multiple Environmental Transmission Pathways (Water, Hands, Food, Soil, Flies) and Subsequent Child Diarrhea in Rural Bangladesh.

Enteric pathogens can be transmitted through multiple environmental pathways, yet little is known about the relative contribution of each pathway to diarrhea risk among children. We aimed to identify fecal transmission pathways in the household environment associated with prospectively measured child diarrhea in rural Bangladesh. We measured the presence and levels of Escherichia coli in tube wells, stored drinking water, pond water, child hand rinses, courtyard soil, flies, and food in 1843 households. Gastrointestinal symptoms among children ages 0-60 months were recorded concurrently at the time of environmental sample collection and again a median of 6 days later. Incident diarrhea (3 or more loose stools in a 24-h period) was positively associated with the concentration of E. coli on child hands measured on the first visit (incidence rate ratio [IRR] = 1.23, 95% CI 1.06, 1.43 for a log10 increase), while other pathways were not associated. In cross-sectional analysis, there were no associations between concurrently measured environmental contamination and diarrhea. Our findings suggest higher levels of E. coli on child hands are strongly associated with subsequent diarrheal illness rates among children in rural Bangladesh.

Animal Feces Contribute to Domestic Fecal Contamination: Evidence from E. coli Measured in Water, Hands, Food, Flies, and Soil in Bangladesh.

Fecal-oral pathogens are transmitted through complex, environmentally mediated pathways. Sanitation interventions that isolate human feces from the environment may reduce transmission but have shown limited impact on environmental contamination. We conducted a study in rural Bangladesh to (1) quantify domestic fecal contamination in settings with high on-site sanitation coverage; (2) determine how domestic animals affect fecal contamination; and (3) assess how each environmental pathway affects others. We collected water, hand rinse, food, soil, and fly samples from 608 households. We analyzed samples with IDEXX Quantitray for the most probable number (MPN) of E. coli. We detected E. coli in source water (25%), stored water (77%), child hands (43%), food (58%), flies (50%), ponds (97%), and soil (95%). Soil had >120 000 mean MPN E. coli per gram. In compounds with vs without animals, E. coli was higher by 0.54 log10 in soil, 0.40 log10 in stored water and 0.61 log10 in food (p < 0.05). E. coli in stored water and food increased with increasing E. coli in soil, ponds, source water and hands. We provide empirical evidence of fecal transmission in the domestic environment despite on-site sanitation. Animal feces contribute to fecal contamination, and fecal indicator bacteria do not strictly indicate human fecal contamination when animals are present.

The Knowledge Base for Achieving the Sustainable Development Goal Targets on Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene.

Safe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) are fundamental to an improved standard of living. Globally, 91% of households used improved drinking water sources in 2015, while for improved sanitation it is 68%. Wealth disparities are stark, with rural populations, slum dwellers and marginalized groups lagging significantly behind. Service coverage is significantly lower when considering the new water and sanitation targets under the sustainable development goals (SDGs) which aspire to a higher standard of 'safely managed' water and sanitation. Lack of access to WASH can have an economic impact as much as 7% of Gross Domestic Product, not including the social and environmental consequences. Research points to significant health and socio-economic consequences of poor nutritional status, child growth and school performance caused by inadequate WASH. Groundwater over-extraction and pollution of surface water bodies have serious impacts on water resource availability and biodiversity, while climate change exacerbates the health risks of water insecurity. A significant literature documents the beneficial impacts of WASH interventions, and a growing number of impact evaluation studies assess how interventions are optimally financed, implemented and sustained. Many innovations in behavior change and service delivery offer potential for scaling up services to meet the SDGs.

Occurrence of Host-Associated Fecal Markers on Child Hands, Household Soil, and Drinking Water in Rural Bangladeshi Households.

We evaluated whether provision and promotion of improved sanitation hardware (toilets and child feces management tools) reduced rotavirus and human fecal contamination of drinking water, child hands, and soil among rural Bangladeshi compounds enrolled in a cluster-randomized trial. We also measured host-associated genetic markers of ruminant and avian feces. We found evidence of widespread ruminant and avian fecal contamination in the compound environment; non-human fecal marker occurrence scaled with animal ownership. Strategies for controlling non- human fecal waste should be considered when designing interventions to reduce exposure to fecal contamination in low-income settings. Detection of a human- associated fecal marker and rotavirus was rare and unchanged by provision and promotion of improved sanitation to intervention compounds. The sanitation intervention reduced ruminant fecal contamination in drinking water and general (non-host specific) fecal contamination in soil but overall had limited effects on reducing fecal contamination in the household environment.

Malaria eradication and economic outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence from Uganda.

This study evaluates the economic consequences of a 1959-1960 malaria eradication campaign in southwestern Uganda. The effort constitutes a rare, large-scale, and well-documented attempt to eliminate malaria in sub-Saharan Africa and produced an immediate disease reduction. We use this quasi-experimental health shock to identify long-term changes in educational and economic outcomes. Comparing the treatment district to a similar synthetic control, we find malaria eradication raised educational attainment by about a half year for both males and females, increased primary school completion among females and generated an almost 40% rise in the likelihood of male wage employment.

Determinants of household demand for bed nets in a rural area of southern Mozambique.

BACKGROUND: A key to making insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) a long-term, sustainable solution to the spread of malaria is understanding what drives their purchase and use. Few studies have analysed the determinants of demand for bed nets for malaria prevention at the household level, and in particular, how demand for nets compares with demand for other mosquito prevention methods. METHODS: This study uses a household survey to assess the determinants of demand for bed nets in an area of endemic malaria transmission in rural, southern Mozambique. The study looks at willingness to pay (WTP) for bed nets, net ownership, usage, and past purchase behaviour, alongside expenditure and frequency of use of alternate methods for malaria prevention. RESULTS: While overall net ownership in the sample is low, the evidence fails to suggest that poorer households are less likely to own bed nets, when controlling for covariates, nor does the likelihood of receiving a free net depend on socioeconomic status (SES). Formal schooling and market knowledge seem to indicate higher average willingness to pay, while use of alternate methods for malaria prevention, and receipt of Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS) are found to decrease demand for bed nets. CONCLUSION: For long-term sustainability of ITNs to be realized, results suggest that either full or partial subsidies may be necessary in some contexts to encourage households to obtain and use nets. Given the possible substitution effects of combined malaria control interventions, and the danger of not taking into consideration household preferences for malaria prevention, successful malaria control campaigns should invest a portion of their funds towards educating recipients of IRS and users of other preventive methods on the importance of net use even in the absence of mosquitoes.