Burkina Faso reported its first cases of COVID-19 on 09 March 2020. Since then, there have been over 14 000 confirmed cases, resulting in nearly 200 deaths and affecting all 13 of the country’s regions. Chronic resource limitations and ongoing conflict have stressed the Burkinabè health system, reducing its ability to prevent the spread of and respond to COVID-19. The public health response to the epidemic in Burkina Faso is being coordinated by its Health Emergency Response Operations Center (Centre des opérations de réponse aux urgences sanitaires; CORUS).

The dashboard below presents the current COVID-19 situation in Burkina Faso.

Appropriate hygiene practices are critical tools to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus.  Research has demonstrated that effective, regular handwashing significantly reduces the transmission of respiratory illnesses like COVID-19 [1].  To enable the employment of appropriate hygiene practices like handwashing, wide-spread awareness of such practices and access to sufficient supplies of safe water are essential.  This is true not only community settings, but also in healthcare facilities, where the frequent circulation of potential COVID-19 patients with other individuals creates nodes of potential transmission.    

In Burkina Faso, limited community-level access to safe water and awareness of appropriate hygiene practices remain challenges for COVID-19 control efforts.  As of 2019, the Ministry of Water and Sanitation (MoWS) estimates that 68.4% of the rural population benefits from at least limited improved water access[1].  When considering the safety of this access, however, only 0.21% of individuals living in rural areas are categorized as having access to safely managed drinking water services[2].  A joint Initiative: Eau-UNICEF study in 2020 showed similar insufficiencies with regards to handwashing.  In the study, 95.8% of households surveyed were found to recognize the need for handwashing prior to eating, but only 56.8% recognized its importance after using the toilet and a still smaller 10.4% before preparing a meal [2].  Furthermore, only 17.5% of surveyed households were observed to have specific sites for handwashing, despite 71.8% indicating that they had received reinforcement messages regarding the importance of hand hygiene [2].

Limited safe water access and employment of appropriate hygiene practices in healthcare facilities also present challenges to COVID-19 control efforts in Burkina Faso.  While a survey is currently being administered by UNICEF to determine more precise levels of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) capacity in Burkinabè health facilities, site visits of health centers in Fada N’Gourma by an Initiative: Eau team revealed several insufficiencies.  While all centers visited had constant water access and handwashing stations at points of entry, all of the handwashing stations were without soap and several were without water.  Lack of either input drastically reduces the utility of these stations in preventing disease transmission.  Additional evidence from partner organizations indicates that rural health facilities are less likely to have stable water connections, and the materials and expertise required to operationalize hygiene procedures than their urban counterparts.  Safe water access and appropriate hygiene practices are especially important in healthcare facilities in order to prevent nosocomial COVID-19 infections.

There is a critical need for immediate investment in safe water access and promotion of appropriate hygiene practices in Burkina Faso. 

We are implementing a number of rapid response projects to support household, community, and health center capacities to prevent, respond to, and recover from COVID-19. Learn more about the individual projects below:

Frequent handwashing is one of the simplest, yet most critical, behavior changes capable of reducing COVID-19 transmission.  Given this, many health centers in Fada N’Gourma have put in place handwashing stations at entry and exit points.  Recent inspection of these handwashing stations, however, revealed that all were without soap and several were without water.  Lack of either input drastically reduces the utility of such stations and is caused by both material and managerial insufficiencies. To support Fada N’Gourma’s health centers in addressing both aspects of this issue, Initiative: Eau is 1) distributing 10 cartons of soap to each of the six public health centers in the city, 2) co-creating and co-implementing a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to regularize handwashing station refilling and restocking and mandatory handwashing upon entry and exit, and 3) seconding a handwashing focal point to each of the six public health centers for two months to ensure SOP implementation and handover to staff.

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Personal protective equipment (PPE) like masks, gowns, and gloves is essential for protecting healthcare workers and for ensuring adequate Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) in healthcare settings. Global shortages of PPE, however, have rendered procurement and distribution of these critical materials difficult, especially in Africa. As per the Burkinabè Ministry of Health’s COVID-19 Response Plan, the country’s response to the epidemic will require 450 000 N95 masks in healthcare settings alone. In light of this, Initiative: Eau is supporting and monitoring the distribution of 20 000 KN95 masks directly to the Burkinabè Ministry of Health procured by the Sidney E. Frank Foundation. The Ministry of Health will distribute these masks to priority hospitals and health centers where case loads are high.

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In Gando, a village of approximately 902 inhabitants, there are six functional water sources, as per the Ministry of Water and Sanitation’s 2019 National Inventory of Hydraulic Works (INO).  The safety and productivity of these water sources, however, are not known.  Similarly, the WASH and Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) capacities of the two health centers used by the inhabitants of Gando, located in the villages of Soumagou and Sabtenga, are also not known.  In a first phase, Initiative: Eau is conducting a diagnostic assessment of WASH needs in the village of Gando and of WASH and IPC capacities in the Sabtenga and Soumagou health centers. Based on this diagnostic assessment, Initiative: Eau will recommend and implement a program to reinforce safe water access and to promote the employment of appropriate hygiene measures necessary to increase Gando’s preparedness for COVID-19. 

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We’re actively working to increase community preparedness to prevent and respond to COVID-19 in Burkina Faso. Your contribution makes this possible. All donations are tax-deductible.