The impact of education on reducing Ebola virus disease transmission in healthcare facilities

Authors : S. Mehtar

Abstract:

Background:

The largest Ebola outbreak in history occurred between Dec 2013 and October 2015, in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea- a total of 28640 cases with 11 315 deaths (39.5%) were recorded. Amongst healthcare workers (HCW), a total of 881 cases with 531 deaths was recorded until the end of Dec 2015. The strategic plans included strengthening of healthcare systems, infection control (IC) training of as many (HCW) as possible, and establishing a national IC programme.

Training:

ICAN is the largest IPC organisation in Africa with a high level expertise in IPC. In collaboration with the WHO and CDC, ICAN delivered the main IC training in Sierra Leone. A one week Basic IPC course on containing Ebola was prepared. The course was structured to provide formal lectures but mainly to engage the students in problem solving, group discussion and peer-presentations to assess their ability to teach others.

Results:

In total, 215 HCW were trained in three batches over 9 months with an overall pass rate of 93%. Challenges highlighted during the early days of the EVD outbreak was confusion, not only among the HCW but also the tutors; fear of the unknown and non-evidence based rituals were introduced and perpetuated- some, like spraying humans with chlorine, were dangerous. The impact of the training programme reflected in infection rates amongst HCW falling from February onwards.

Citation: S. Mehtar The impact of education on reducing Ebola virus disease transmission in healthcare facilities doi:10.1016/j.ijid.2016.02.193

Available online 29 March 2016

Copyright: © 2016 International Society for Infectious Diseases. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Conclusion:

An increase in IC supplies and a robust, evidence based training programme clarified safe IC practices and increased confidence in the workplace. Education was a major contributor to containing HCW EVD spread.