1. WASH activities at two Ebola treatment units in Sierra Leone
- Author
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Miriam Aschkenasy, Estifanos Debasu, Peter Wallis, Michael Mallow, Adam C. Levine, Timmy Jeng, Bob Bongomin, Hilarie Cranmer, and Lee Gary
- Subjects
RNA viruses ,Viral Diseases ,Sanitation ,Databases, Factual ,Epidemiology ,lcsh:Medicine ,medicine.disease_cause ,Pathology and Laboratory Medicine ,Geographical locations ,0302 clinical medicine ,Mathematical and Statistical Techniques ,Hygiene ,Medicine and Health Sciences ,Infection control ,Public and Occupational Health ,030212 general & internal medicine ,lcsh:Science ,media_common ,Data Management ,Multidisciplinary ,Ebolavirus ,Chemistry ,Geography ,Infectious Diseases ,Medical Microbiology ,Filoviruses ,Viral Pathogens ,Physical Sciences ,Viruses ,Regression Analysis ,Medical emergency ,Chlorine ,Pathogens ,Ebola Virus ,Environmental Health ,Statistics (Mathematics) ,Research Article ,Chemical Elements ,Neglected Tropical Diseases ,Computer and Information Sciences ,media_common.quotation_subject ,030231 tropical medicine ,Linear Regression Analysis ,Research and Analysis Methods ,Microbiology ,Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever ,Sierra leone ,Sierra Leone ,03 medical and health sciences ,medicine ,Humans ,Statistical Methods ,Personal protective equipment ,Microbial Pathogens ,Retrospective Studies ,Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers ,Ebola virus ,Biology and life sciences ,Hemorrhagic Fever Viruses ,lcsh:R ,Organisms ,Outbreak ,Hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola ,medicine.disease ,Tropical Diseases ,Health Care ,Africa ,lcsh:Q ,People and places ,Mathematics - Abstract
Purpose The 2014 outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in West Africa was the largest in history. Starting in September 2014, International Medical Corps (IMC) operated five Ebola treatment units (ETUs) in Sierra Leone and Liberia. This paper explores how future infectious disease outbreak facilities in resource-limited settings can be planned, organized, and managed by analyzing data collected on water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) and infection prevention control (IPC) protocols. Design/Methodology/Approach We conducted a retrospective cohort study by analyzing WASH/IPC activity data routinely recorded on paper forms or white boards at ETUs during the outbreak and later merged into a database from two IMC-run ETUs in Sierra Leone between December 2014 and December 2015. Findings The IMC WASH/IPC database contains data from over 369 days. Our results highlight parameters key to designing and maintaining an ETU. High concentration chlorine solution usage was highly correlated with both daily patient occupancy and high-risk zone staff entries; low concentration chlorine usage was less well explained by these measures. There is high demand for laundering and disinfecting of personal protective equipment (PPE) on a daily basis and approximately 1 (0–4) piece of PPE is damaged each day. Research limitations/Implications Lack of standardization in the type and format of data collected at ETUs made constructing the WASH/IPC database difficult. However, the data presented here may help inform humanitarian response operations in future epidemics.
- Published
- 2018