Assessing infection prevention and control during COVID-19 in 22 humanitarian contexts

ABSTRACT

Building a robust healthcare system is dependent on infection prevention and control (IPC), which is also essential during pandemics. In late 2020, a multi-country assessment was conducted, and it revealed serious issues that need to be fixed. Poor infection prevention and control (IPC) infrastructure and practices during the Ebola outbreaks in West Africa in 2014 to 2015 and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2019 resulted in high numbers of health-care worker infections and decreased use of health services because of people's fear of transmission. The International Rescue Committee (IRC) created a baseline set of IPC criteria for COVID-19 based on their experience with Ebola in an effort to facilitate quick IPC advancements at healthcare facilities serving people impacted by violence and displacement. The main tenets of this basic package for IPC are on personnel and responsibility, expertise and application, and resources and infrastructure. The administered facilities by IRC perform better generally than those by MOH and other partners, it is crucial to mention. The reason for this discrepancy is that IRC can more readily make modifications in facilities that it directly maintains than in facilities that it merely supports. This should show that even under the most challenging situations, it is possible to put appropriate IPC procedures in place. Members of the World Health Assembly (WHA) decided to enhance WASH services in healthcare facilities in four resolutions that were enacted in 2019. 2 Member states likewise urged nations to improve IPC, particularly in the WASH industry, in order to guarantee the greatest standards of universal healthcare. IPC is still given too little priority despite these international agreements.