The County government of Nakuru is in the process of training officers on healthcare waste management and infection prevention control to prevent embarrassing and illegal dumping of such waste due to their highly transmittable capacities.
The Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) coordinator Joseph Kuria, today emphasized that the training will also enhance coordination among healthcare workers, leading to faster response times in infection control measures.
“We expect to see a reduction in hospital-acquired infections once the IPC committee develops and implements their action plans and has monitoring and evaluation systems,” says Kuria.
He said the training is conducted by the Department of Health Services in collaboration with USAID Tujenge Jamii, and will have a significant impact in managing infection prevention controls within health facilities.
Additionally, he said all people potentially have infectious microorganisms. As such, it must be assumed that all blood and body fluids, plus other substances are possibly infectious. Hence, standard precautions are required to achieve a basic level of infection prevention and control.
Furthermore, Kuria said the precautions apply to all patients regardless of their diagnosis or presumed infection status so as to minimize, and where possible, eliminate the risk of transmission of infections, particularly those caused by blood borne viruses.
However, all over the country the healthcare waste management has always been a challenge, and more often than not, such hazardous wastes are thrown casually at dumpsites and garbage collectors and children, who aren’t aware of their effects play with slingers and soiled cotton wool.
Recently, the residents of Nakuru West sub-county were astonished when they found a huge consignment of hazardous healthcare waste dumped at the bank of a river and nursery school children were playing with some of the items.
By Veronica Bosibori
