By Alie Eleveld | Founder SWAP and Technical Advisor
Introduction
Safe Water and AIDS Project (SWAP) has been operating in Western Kenya since 2005 with public health programs, research and emergency response. SWAP's mission is to provide innovative solutions for improved health and economic status of communities.
SWAP has a wealth of experience in public health interventions and has worked in collaboration with County Health Management Teams to respond to COVID-19 especially with focus on health care facilities supporting and protecting the frontline work force and the community at large from COVID-19 spread.
For that reason, the GlobalGiving platform was used to source for crowd funding from donors and well-wishers in our effort to protect health workers, reduce the COVID-19 spread and mitigate the impact.
Production of Alcohol Based Hand Rub (ABHR)
SWAP’s lab team actively continued with ABHR production to combat the spread of COVID-19, in the month of October and November 2022, a total of 200 liters of ABHR was produced and packed in readiness for centralized distribution to all 47 health facilities within Nyando and Nyakach sub-counties in Kisumu County.
SWAP had submitted several samples of ABHR to the Kenya Bureau of Standards to facilitate the renewal of our permit for production of ABHR. This was granted 17th November before the previous expiry date of the permit. The samples all passed the quality checks.
On 24/11 /2022, a total of 77.5 litres of ABHR was delivered to Nyando sub-county central stores within Ahero County Hospital and on 30/11/2022, a total of 96 litres of ABHR was delivered to Nyakach sub-county central store within Katito sub-county hospital. This marked the first round of planned central distribution which is to run for the next 4 months.
The sanitizers were packed in 500ml bottles for all 47 health care facilities. Each Health Care Facility is entitled to a specific number of bottles depending on the number of patient care areas they have.
STREAM Chlorine generators at Health Care Facilities
The lab team trained and installed STREAM disinfectant generators at 8 health care facilities for infection prevention and control. This generates chlorine using salt and water and supports facilities to reduce hospital acquired infections and mitigates the spread of COVID-19. Chlorine is used for cleaning surfaces, treating water and disinfecting laundry. The Hospitals used to have interrupted supplies of the same and can now make their own. On average each facility produces up to 1000 liters of chlorine per month and they support the surrounding smaller dispensaries and health centers.
Our team visits the facility on monthly basis for trouble shooting, on the job training and monitoring of its use and distribution. The facilities who were provided the STREAM disinfectant generators are located in all sub counties of Kisumu County.
Production of Liquid Soap
Following demand from the health workers and community members SWAP started a production unit for Liquid Soap. During distribution of hand washing stations with bar soap we realized that bar soap often gets dirty, dry, soaked during rain or gets missing or eaten by goats or rats. Preferred for hand hygiene was liquid soap. Renovations were made of our store and investments were made to procure supplies and ingredients needed. The soap is distributed to health care facilities, hot spot areas, worship areas and sold for sustainability. Approval was given after submitting several samples by the Kenya Bureau of Standards. The liquid soap became very popular and its sale through social marketing can pay for the production. It is not only used for hand washing but for general cleaning purpose as well.
COVID 19 Waste Water Based Epidemiology Research
With technical support from the University of Illinois at Chicago SWAP started testing waste water for COVID-19. A PCR testing kit was donated and intensive training on standard operating procedures and sampling was done. On weekly basis the lab team in collaboration with the public health officers and representatives of the Kisumu Water and Sanitation Company collects samples from waste water treatment plants, Hospitals, lagoons, prisons, markets and other hot spot areas and analyses the waste water. All positive samples are further taken to the Walter Reed Lab for genomic sequencing. All data from this is entered into a COVID 19 Data base and is helping with mathematical modeling and projections of COVID-19. Recently 7 samples tested positive, which shows community spread of COVID-19. We are currently experiencing the 7th wave of COVID-19. SWAP will continue this research until March 2023.
WE THANK YOU FOR YOUR ONGOING SUPPORT AND DONATIONS
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