Impact of hand hygiene interventions on handwashing practices and microbial risk: A study in an orphanage-based school in Pakistan.

Background: Orphaned children are often deprived of quality care, making them more susceptible to diseases due to inadequate hand hygiene. The study aimed to assess the prevalence of hand hygiene practices and detect bacterial loads on children's hands before and after hygiene interventions in an orphanage school.

Methods: The study enrolled all the orphan children registered with the Save Our Souls children's orphanage school in Pakistan. Handwashing practices and swab samples from the hand was collected to evaluate the impact of hand hygiene practices on bacterial load. The Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment model was used to predict the health risk.

Results: The study identified the 2 most common bacteria: Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. The bacterial contamination was significantly reduced after the intervention (S aureus 166 Colony-forming unit (CFU) /mL and E coli 185 CFU/mL). The higher bacterial ingestion rate was attributed to hand contamination and increased bacteria transfer from hand to mouth.

Conclusions: The multicomponent hand hygiene intervention showed improvement in accessibility to hand hygiene resources and practices. The findings underscore the need for hygiene interventions in orphanage schools to improve health and educational outcomes.