Training scheme to prevent infections in Rwanda

Imperial team awarded funding to train doctors and nurses in Rwanda to prevent deaths from infections in mothers and babies.

A team from the National Centre for Infection Prevention and Management (CIPM) at Imperial College London has been awarded funding to train doctors and nurses in Rwanda to prevent deaths from infections in mothers and babies.

Experienced neonatal doctors, nurses and infection control nurses from Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust will deliver a training programme over three visits to Butare University Teaching Hospital (CHUB), aiming to reduce neonatal mortality and maternal and neonatal infection through improved infection prevention and management, patient safety and neonatal care

The programme will be supported by a £30,000 grant from the Tropical Health & Education Trust (THET).

Professor Alison Holmes, Director of Infection Prevention and Control at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and Co-Director of CIPM said: “’We are delighted to have this opportunity to build upon our partnership work with our Butare colleagues and to particularly focus on improving healthcare and clinical outcomes for Rwandan mothers and babies.”

In its Millennium Development Goals, the United Nations set a target of reducing the mortality rate in children under five by two thirds between 1995 and 2015. Out of every 1000 children born in Rwanda, 91 die before their fifth birthday. The mortality rate has come down from 163 deaths per 1000 births in 1990, but to reach the MDG target it will need to reach 54 deaths per 1000 by 2015.

The training programme will cover infection prevention and surveillance, management and treatment of common infections, how to collect data, hand hygiene and using surgical safety checklists.

The Academic Health Sciences Centre of Imperial College London and Imperial College Healthcare has a history of implementing projects in Rwanda. Dr Tom Lissauer, a project lead in the new initiative, has previously set up a Health Partnership with the Ministry of Health and National University of Rwanda to improve health services through the reciprocal exchange of skills, knowledge and experience. In 2011, Imperial College Healthcare paired with CHUB as part of the WHO African Partnership for Patient Safety.