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“Others have sores in their mouths, and they can’t eat or swallow. You find some with flies
around their bodies. Then we clean the person, clean their tongue with a spatula; mouth
wash or salt. We then try to feed them porridge; we now know how to use draw sheets; linen
savers; bandages; gauze mouth wash; disinfectants and other things to protect ourselves”.
4.5.4 Wearing protective clothing
(Focus group 6, organisation F)
Most participants knew the importance of wearing protective clothing such as gloves, aprons
and masks before performing their work on patients for protection from infections. They
wore masks when handling T.B patients; aprons and gloves or other locally available plastic
papers when dressing wounds, handling linen soiled with body secretions such as blood,
faeces, vomits and pus, and handling soiled and dressing materials like bandages or cotton
swabs:
“Before you touch anything in the patient’s house or the patient we always wear gloves
correctly because you can still be infected when using gloves especially if you use them
incorrectly. We also wear masks because you may not know who has T.B. and the smell in
some houses is too much so the mask also helps to filter the bad odour. Then you also wear
your apron so that you do not mess your own clothing. Then when you have finished
performing all your duties, you must also know how to remove the glove. When you remove
the glove, you must not touch your body. You must hold the glove carefully to avoid infection
by touching yourself. There is also no need to use the apron twice. If you have one apron, and
you need to us it the next day, you must use the other side of it, and then throw it away.”
4.5.3 Proper disposal of waste
(Focus group1, organisation A)
Majority of participants in interviews and focus groups emphasised the importance of proper
disposal of the used materials such as gloves, cotton wool, bandages, diapers, swabs and
some used gauze by burning; burying; storing them in waste store facilities and pouring them
into pit latrines to prevent and kill disease causing microorganisms. Most of the participants
stored their waste in waste storage facilities that were collected twice a week by the garbage
truck:
“We have black plastics in our kits where we put in diapers and gloves, bandages, cotton
wool and all the things that have been used. We tie the plastic with tape and throw it in the
rubbish bin the one which is outside to be collected by the garbage truck.”
(Focus group 4, organisation D)
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