Diarrhea and menstrual blood management: A challenge for home-based care providers

Organizations in developing countries that provide care for chronically ill clients in their homes frequently prepare their community health workers, known as home-based care (HBC) providers, to deal with their client's treatment and psychosocial needs. Frequently, less emphasis is placed on training to meet the client's sanitation needs, which can be very demanding for clients living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) due to their increased risk of acquiring diarrhea.

Besides the negative impact on life expectancy/quality of life that diarrhea causes, it increases the burden of care-giving in the home and puts family members at risk of acquiring diarrhea, further weakening the resilience of families already struggling to meet HIV/AIDS associated challenges.

Sanitation needs for female bedbound clients encompass managing menstrual blood, often a taboo subject, is not addressed in current HBC providers training. This is worrisome since menstrual blood has a high viral load, putting caregivers at risk.

This presentation describes the research conducted in Ethiopia and Uganda to identify the feces and menstrual blood management needs of PLWHA and the behavioral options to address them. Emphasis will be given to “small doable actions” that HBC providers, PLWHA and their home caregivers can implement to improve the clients comfort level and health care status, reduce the risk of transmission of HIV and diarrhea and decrease the care burden. The HBC training program, research tools, training manual, HBC providers reference guide, and job aids will be shared.