admin | May 1, 2023
Thursday 4 May 2023 at 4:00 – 5:00 PM East Africa Time
Hand hygiene saves millions of lives every year when performed at the right moments during health care delivery. It is also a smart investment that offers exceptional return for investments. Clean care protects health workers, care givers and those who seek care.
Despite the importance of hand hygiene, an Infection Prevention and Control (IPC)-Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) global assessment found that the Eastern and Southern Africa region ranks lowest with over 47% of the population lacking access to at least basic drinking water services.
Health workers have not been spared, having been disproportionately affected by emerging and re-emerging infections in recent years and months.
In 2023, the WHO Regional Office for Africa’s campaign theme for World Hand Hygiene Day is “together, we can accelerate action to prevent infections and antimicrobial resistance in health care and build a culture of safety and quality in which hand hygiene improvement is given high priority.”
Along this theme, the May 4 ESAR RCCE Media Dialog will be devoted to a discussion of the importance of hand hygiene, and we will hear from several speakers from a variety of backgrounds to discuss the challenges they face in improving IPC and WASH in the East and Southern Africa region.
To join us for this Dialog, please register at this ZOOM link: https://internews.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_3yepYJmzS6Kd8gn_IA1-tw
Note for journalists: Please feel free to submit your questions to any and all of the speakers in advance when registering for this Dialog.
This Media Dialog is brought to you by the Media Taskforce of the Eastern and Southern Africa Inter-Agency working group for Risk Communication and Community Engagement.
SPEAKERS
Dr. Landry Kabego
Dr. Landry Kabego is a medical doctor and specialist in Medical Virology and Infection Prevention and Control. He works with the World Health Organization/AFRO where he leads the Infection Prevention and Control team under the cluster of Emergency Preparedness and Response. He has supported Ebola responses since 2018 in DRC, Guinea, and Ivory-Coast, Marburg response in Guinea, and Covid-19 response in Africa.
As part of his daily work, he is guiding member states on the process of establishing or strengthening their IPC programs at national and healthcare facility levels, by developing national and facility action plans.
Dr. Yewande Alimi
Dr Yewande Alimi is the Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Program Coordinator at Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, and co-lead for the Africa Union Task force on AMR. She co-chairs the Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) Section for COVID-19 response across the continent and provides technical IPC support to the Africa Task Force for Coronavirus.
Before joining the Africa CDC, Dr. Alimi practised as a veterinary surgeon in Nigeria. She worked as a research analyst at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Health Technology Assessment, Austria and CompanDX, United Kingdom. She serves on several advisory boards and groups across the continent and globally. She is the One Health Technical Advisor for Global Emerging Pathogens Treatment Consortium.
Pierre Fourcassie
French national Pierre Fourcassie is currently the WASH Humanitarian specialist with the UNICEF Regional Office for Eastern and Southern Africa region. He has 28 years’ work experience as WASH project/programme manager and technical advisor in Africa, Southeast Asia, Central America, the Middle East and North Africa, and Europe, including 25 years in the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene sector with NGOs. He is passionate in collaborative problem solving at field level, technical assistance, training, quality assurance, advocacy for rights to WASH, and WASH in Public Health Emergencies. Pierre has a MSc in Hydrogeology (Avignon, France) and a diploma in Community WASH services and management (WEDC, Loughborough).
Dr. Mwangi Waituru
Dr. Waituru is Policy and Advocacy Advisor (Africa) for Voluntary Service Overseas in Kenya. He is a champion for volunteerism for ensuring realization of the “leave no one behind” philosophy and he will describe the CSO sector’s work in promoting hand hygiene.