Hope as Covid-19 interventions transform fight against hygiene-related diseases

Josephine Awino, a mother of three steps on a wooden stick tied to a water container hanging from a stick erected at the entrance of her home at her home in North Sakwa in Siaya.

She picks a soap placed in a tray next to the hanging container and smears it in her hands and uses her feet to tilt the water container before washing her hands from the dripping water.

To her, the simple home-made device which they invented to help improve hygiene when cholera first took a toll on them in 2018 got a renewed role with the entry Covid-19.

Rose Akinyi washes her hands using a simple home-made device tippy tap. Innovations to slow the spread of Covid-19 has changed the fight against hygiene-related diseases. (Harold Odhiambo, Standard)

Dubbed Tippy Tap, the initiative that became the face of Covid-19 fight in several remote villagers has now drastically changed hygiene and improved sanitation.

Authorities laud it as part of the Covid-19 innovations that have transformed the fight against other hygiene-related diseases including cholera and diarrhea. Since measures to contain the virus were adopted, not even a single case of cholera has been reported in three Nyanza counties.

In the last couple of years, Kisumu, Siaya and Homa Bay counties have been grappling with several cases of cholera that has claimed several lives. Now however, health officials claim they are yet to report any case.

And at the core of the transformation is the little-known homemade device that now dots the entrances of several homes in the region as residents begin to take their hygiene seriously.

With only a stick acting as a lever, ash drawn from their kitchens, soap and some sort of container, almost each household has erected the device in their compounds.

But for the villagers and authorities, the device has not only been the face of Covid-19 fight in the villages, its enhanced usage has rapidly transformed the fight against diarrheal diseases.

It was one of the major breakthroughs in the fight of a disease that had claimed several lives and bedridden tens of locals. That is cholera.

“It has not been easy for us. We have been forced to improvise to address maintain hygiene and wash hands frequently to maintain hygiene. But it is more than just for Covid-19,” she explains.

Moments after washing her hands, she uses a piece of cloth she has placed next to her gate to dry her hands.

To her, washing hands using the simple hand-made device is the “nod” to enter her home.

She explains that in the past, she had erected the device next to her toilet and was only used by those who visited the toilet. Then Covid-19 came.  

“I had no option but to erect another device at the entrance of my home,” she says.

But she is not alone, in her village, several household have adopted the initiative in what authorities now attribute to the declining cases of cholera and diarrhea cases.

In her village, tired with the unending cases of cholera and diarrheal disease outbreaks that has led to the loss of several lives, residents have now devised the method to ensure that everyone washes their hands when entering homes and visiting toilets.

Interviews with several stakeholders in the region has established that interventions to control the spread of Covid-19 are turning out to be the game-changer in the fight against hygiene-related diseases that some Nyanza counties have been struggling to contain.

In some parts of the region, cholera and diarrheal diseases have been taking a toll on residents as authorities struggled to find a solution to the problem.

So dire has been the situation that Siaya County has been grappling with at least two incidences of cholera outbreak leading to the loss of lives since 2016.

In 2016 Siaya County had a death toll 15 and 558 recorded   cumulative cases of cholera outbreak. The most affected sub counties that recorded high cases of cholera patients were; Alego Usonga, Ugunja and Ugenya

While in 2015 the county recorded 80 cases mostly from Gem subcounty, Kogelo, Anduro and Hono villages in Alego Usonga. Several residents also struggled with diarrhea.

Now, however, the trend appears to be changing with cases of diarrhea that has always skyrocketed declining.

A report released by the County Government yesterday indicates that the cases of diarrhea has been declining since June last year with even a single case yet to be reported this year.

This despite the county registering 1117 cases of diarrhea in December last year after dropping from 2177 cases which were reported in November, 2020. The report indicates that the figures have been dropping by almost half since Covid-19 struck and measures to control it adopted.

According to the County Executive Member for Health Dismas Wakla attributed the decline to the interventions used to control Covid-19.

“There is a remarkable decline in the number of diarrhoea cases in Siaya County. People have become more aware of the need to maintain hygiene,” said Wakla.

And in the region, as others decried lack of enough hand washing equipment and hand sanitizers, the simple equipment made of only a string, an empty water jerrican and a stick is becoming a game changer in the quest to ensure that people wash their hands.

At the gates of most homes and outside each latrine door hangs a plastic container filled with water. It is attached to a string and secured with a stick to the ground. A bar of soap is also placed next to it.

The device has offered hope to several families and businesses in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic. Most of them claim they have been unable to afford hand washing equipment that is also in short supply.

Interviews with several residents established that the device has already created a culture of handwashing with several people now embracing the initiative while avoiding handshakes.

Millicent Auma, a mother of two who resides in Ugunja has also adopted the method and is among the strongest advocates for the method to help control spread of diarrheal diseases.

She however claimed that a majority of them were still struggling to afford soaps and other detergents but they are doing their best to ensure that they clean their hands.

In the past, some villagers relied only on ash to act as the detergent and believed that ash had the components that kill germs. Now, however, the use of soap has become mandatory for most families.

Although other villages are also struggling with poor water connections, they have made the device a priority with some using chlorine to treat waters from rivers before using them on the device.

A number of community health workers told The Standard that they are hoping other villages that have been grappling with hygiene will replicate the method to help promote concerted efforts in combating the spread of the infectious disease.

But it is not just the device that has transformed the fight against cholera and other diarrheal diseases, in remote islands in Lake Victoria’s isolated residents have also become more aware of the need to maintain clean hygiene.

A stroll at Mageta Island , which is located a few meters away from the Kenyan-Ugandan border established that residents have also adopted a culture of handwashing.

For an island where supply of clean water remains a mirage, residents had relied on the Lake Water for drinking, washing their hands as well as for cooking.

Now however, the residents have made it a habit to use sanitizers supplied by well-wishers to maintain their hygiene.

Jairus Ojanga, the chairperson of the Island Beach Management Unit and stationed at Mahanga beach in the island said that the interventions against Covid-19 has changed how fishermen keep their hygiene.

“Most fishermen have now made it a habit to carry even sanitizers and soaps when they are out on fishing expeditions. We rarely get complaints about diarrheal diseases,” said Ojanga.

In Kisumu and Homa Bay counties, authorities have placed points where residents can clean their hands and have also been steadfast in implementing Covid-19 measures which are turning out to be beneficial in the quest to fight other hygiene related diseases.

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