A GROUP of students currently pursuing the Infection Prevention and Control Certificate course, in the Department of Nursing at the Durban University of Technology (DUT), hosted a handwashing project at Edu Bears Playcentre and Preschool in Overport on Wednesday, August 23.

This comes after the students identified the lack of handwashing as a contributor to the spread of childhood diseases. The group chose Edu Bears to teach and encourage children to follow the correct handwashing behaviour. The group hopes that their intervention will have the potential to increase hand hygiene and help reduce the transmission of infections.

According to Dr Nellie Naranjee, senior lecturer at the Department of Nursing, the students’ course is based on a project-based learning approach, where students have to identify real-world problems related to infection prevention and control, and respond accordingly.

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“Due to the resurgence of several childhood infections such as mumps, measles and diphtheria, students have identified handwashing as the main means of infection prevention. Children are at particular risk for diseases related to poor water, sanitation and hygiene. Proper hygiene education is a critical step in reducing illness and death from several diseases. Proper handwashing can lower exposure to germs. This can lessen the chances of illness – leading to better nutrition intake, more energy available for growth and development and better attendance at school,” said Naranjee.

Additionally, children have immature immune systems, and behavioural factors, such as the inclination to explore objects with their hands and mouths, make them particularly susceptible to and a good transmitter of communicable illnesses.  Naranjee and the students believe that schools are places where children can transmit infections.

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According to Naranjee, both the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advocate the use of non-pharmaceutical interventions such as handwashing to prevent the spread of infectious diseases. School-based interventions are one of the most effective methods of encouraging correct handwashing behaviour in children and educational interventions.

This is the first project the students are taking on, and they are hopeful that there will be more school engagement projects in the future.

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