Promoting healthy hygiene and sanitation practices for people living with HIV and AIDS

Many life threatening opportunistic infections among people living with HIV and AIDS (PLHIV) are caused by exposure to unsafe drinking water, inadequate sanitation, and poor hygiene. Diarrhoea affects 90 percent of PLHIV and results in significant morbidity and mortality. WASHplus, a five-year USAID- funded project, is implementing a WASH-HIV integration program that supports Kenya’s community strategy to integrate improved WASH practices into HIV policies and programs using community health workers. WASHplus trained over 350 facilitators, including district public health officers specializing in WASH and HIV integration, using a small doable actions approach. These facilitators supported community health and home-based care workers that worked to promote feasible actions to improve WASH practices among PLHIV. Communities have embraced this concept—adapting toilet seats for PLHIV and the mobility challenged, exploring income generating projects to provide handwashing facilities to households, and securing additional funding to roll these activities out at the household level.