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World Hand Hygiene Day 2023 | Collections | MSF Science Portal
World Hand Hygiene Day 2023

World Hand Hygiene Day 2023

"Clean hands, safe care" is the theme of this year's World Hand Hygiene Day. At MSF, we know that Hand Hygiene is the simplest and best way to prevent the transmission of infections in our facilities. This collection features some lessons learned about hand hygiene and infection, prevention, & control (IPC) in MSF projects, especially in resource-constrained environments in the Sahel, and in the era of COVID-19.

Collection Content

Journal Article
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Research

Achieving minimum standards for infection prevention and control in Sierra Leone: urgent need for a quantum leap in progress in the COVID-19 era!

Fofanah BD, Abrahamyan A, Maruta A, Kallon C, Thekkur P,  et al.
2022-05-06 • International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
2022-05-06 • International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
INTRODUCTION
Good Infection prevention and control (IPC) is vital for tackling antimicrobial resistance and limiting health care-associated infections. We compared IPC performance be...
Journal Article
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Research

An exploratory qualitative study of caregivers' knowledge, perceptions and practices related to hospital hygiene in rural Niger

Marquer C, Guindo O, Mahamadou I, Job E, Rattigan SM,  et al.
2021-09-01 • Infection Prevention in Practice
2021-09-01 • Infection Prevention in Practice
BACKGROUND
The risk of healthcare-associated infections is exacerbated by poor hygiene practices in health care facilities and can contribute to increased patient morbidity and morta...
Journal Article
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Commentary

How COVID-19 highlighted the need for infection prevention and control measures to become central to the global conversation: experience from the conflict settings of the Middle East

Mouallem RE, Moussally K, Williams A, Repetto EC, Menassa M,  et al.
2021-08-19 • International Journal of Infectious Diseases
2021-08-19 • International Journal of Infectious Diseases
The COVID-19 pandemic has managed to bring to the foreground, in just few months, the conversation around what Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) experts have been pushing for decade...
Journal Article
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Research

Hand hygiene compliance and environmental contamination with gram-negative bacilli in a rural hospital in Madarounfa, Niger

Tang K, Berthé F, Nackers F, Hanson KE, Mambula C,  et al.
2019-10-14 • Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
2019-10-14 • Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
Background
Healthcare-associated infections pose a major, yet often preventable risk to patient safety. Poor hand hygiene among healthcare personnel and unsanitary hospital environm...
Journal Article
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Research

Inclusion of real-time hand hygiene observation and feedback in a multimodal hand hygiene improvement strategy in low-resource settings

Lenglet AD, van Deursen B, Viana R, Abubakar N, Hoare S,  et al.
2019-08-02 • Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)
2019-08-02 • Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)
IMPORTANCE
Hand hygiene adherence monitoring and feedback can reduce health care-acquired infections in hospitals. Few low-cost hand hygiene adherence monitoring tools exist in low-r...

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Medical and humanitarian harms of restrictive European migration policies

Medical and humanitarian harms of restrictive European migration policies
Conflict, persecution, poverty, food insecurity and natural disasters—increasingly fueled by climate change—continue to drive migration globally. Yet many wealthy countries are doubling down on hostile policies to prevent people from seeking safety within their borders, thereby subjecting them to a wide range of harms. In a newly-published report MSF focuses on European Union and member state policies that intensify exposure to violence, exploitation, risk of drowning at sea, disease, and lack of access to basic health care and shelter, both within European Union borders and beyond. The Collection linked below presents this report alongside selected publications illustrating the broader context, based on quantitative studies and accounts from MSF patients and medical teams over nearly a decade of operational experience along the European migration route. From violent, squalid detention centers in Libya— where people intercepted by the EU-supported Libyan coast guard are forcibly returned —to perilous Mediterranean crossings in flimsy rubber boats and often abysmal reception centers and camps within the EU, it documents how these policies and practices further harm highly vulnerable people seeking safety and protection.
World Refugee Day 2022

World Refugee Day 2022

As we mark World Refugee Day (20 June 2022), over 100 million people globally are forcibly displaced from their home—the highest number ever recorded, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency. The health impacts of this displacement are dire: millions of people exposed to violence, infectious disease, and exclusion from health care during often-treacherous journeys or in detention centers and refugee camps.


Here we bring you a selection of MSF research aimed at better understanding and meeting the medical needs of populations along their migration route. Some studies describe the physical and psychological wounds our teams witness among specific populations—from unaccompanied minors to people detained under inhumane conditions in Libya or rescued from drowning after risking everything in perilous Mediterranean Sea crossings. Others assess ways to improve models of care for refugees with chronic diseases like hypertension and diabetes, or for tackling infectious diseases such as diphtheria and hepatitis E in overcrowded, unhygienic camps.

Snakebite envenoming: a neglected health crisis

Snakebite envenoming: a neglected health crisis

Every year 2 million or more people fall victim to snakebite envenoming, mostly in poor, rural communities of Africa, Asia and Latin America. Between 83,000—138,000 of them die, while hundreds of thousands more suffer debilitating long-term complications or disabilities.


Although some antivenom medicines are highly effective when used promptly and appropriately, many snakebite victims get no treatment at all. Those who do may receive antivenoms which don’t work against the type of snake that bit them, or were not rigorously tested for safety and effectiveness.


To mark World Snakebite Awareness Day on September 19th, the Collection linked below brings together recent MSF work on this highly neglected disease. Several articles and conference presentations help fill evidence gaps on the burden of disease and its impacts or on treatment outcomes with specific antivenoms. Others examine how to tackle the formidable challenges of availability and affordability, the absence of regulatory oversight for making, testing and registering antivenoms, and the anemic R&D pipeline for new products—all of which impede access for patients to safe, effective treatment tailored to local snake species.

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