P139: Clean hands fact-finding mission 2012 to Afghanistan: good intentions, minor results, why?

The Balkh Province Civil Hospital (BBCH), Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan, has undergone a €20 million major reconstruction financed by KfW, Germany, a government-owned development bank, and is used as a teaching hospital by the Balkh Medical Faculty. In 2009, the German Government sponsored the modernisation of the BBCH leishmania centre (cutaneous leishmania is endemic in Afghanistan) with €0.1 million, which allowed to run wound-healing trials. In this outpatient clinic, wound-healing impairment typical of cutaneous leishmania may be aggravated if combined with neglected basic hand hygiene, particularly as a moist environment must be maintained for healing.