Prevention, control key for health

INFECTION prevention and control (IPC) is important in running a health facility, according to a Health Department official.
Deputy secretary national health standards services Ken Wai was speaking on Friday during the closing of the first national training of trainers programme conducted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for infection prevention and control.
“When it comes to infection control, we have almost 3,000 health facilities in the country; that’s 22 hospitals, 17 district hospitals, more than 600 health centres and more than 2,000 aid-posts,” Wai said.
“The most infected place is not the rubbish dump or the market place, but the health facilities.”
He added that health workers should ensure they did not contract infection because they go out to communities.
“We cannot compromise infection control,” Wai said.
“Infection prevention and control is a practical evidence-based approach which prevents patients and health workers from being harmed by avoidable infection and as a result of antimicrobial resistance.”
According to WHO, no one should catch an infection while receiving health care, yet, these infections can spread through outbreaks and many regular care practices, affecting hundreds of millions of people across the world every year.
WHO country representative Roderick Salanga said infection prevention and control was a fundamental basis for health coverage and an inadequate IPC was harmful and could kill people. “We have seen it a few years and months ago, because it is true and is experience,” he said.
Salanga noted that the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic had presented the opportunity to identify and address the challenge of infection prevention and control.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has given us the opportunity to reflect and to criticise ourselves,” he said.