Health experts attribute drug stock-outs to poor hygiene

District health officers at Hotel Africana in Kampala after the dissemination seminar. Photo by Noah Jagwe 

World Health Organisation (WHO) officials have said poor hygiene and sanitation at health care facilities is increasing drug stock-outs in government medical stores.

Dr Collins Mwesigye, a programmes officer at WHO, said patients pick up germs from health centres where they go to seek treatment. 

"If you cause infections at health facilities due to lack of hand-washing facilities, more people will fall sick as they come for treatment. The supply in terms of medicine will get exhausted in the process," Mwesigye noted. 

He added that most of the hand-washing facilities are not usable by patients because they are dirty.

Mwesigye said the poor usage of hand-washing facilities by patients has also exacerbated the sanitation situation. "The public must be engaged on proper usage of sanitation facilities," he said.

This was revealed during the dissemination of a baseline study done in 12 health facilities in western and eastern districts of Karamoja and Hoima hospitals by UNICEF and World Vision to determine the status of WASH in all the facilities in order to design appropriate interventions. 

One of the researchers, Richard Mugambe from Makerere School of Public Health, said they found out that several health centres lack improved water and sanitation facilities.

"We were interested in observing water quality, hygiene as well as sanitation infrastructure," Mugambe said.

According to the report, a good number of health facilities that were assessed have poor sanitation and hygiene conditions because they lack access to improved water sources.