Contamination of used toothbrushes and their decontamination with disinfecting agents

AIM: To evaluate microbial contamination of toothbrushes and the efficacy of different oral disinfectant agents in their decontamination METHODS: The heads of 98 used toothbrushes derived from patients who needed oral hygiene treatment were included in the study. In the laboratory, microorganisms on toothbrush heads were identified using standard microbiological methods. Toothbrush heads with microorganisms were then randomly divided into four groups of 19 and disinfected with Brushtox, Andolex C, Listerine® and water (control), followed by microbiological analysis RESULTS: Seventy eight percent of toothbrushes were contaminated with different microorganisms. Coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS) were found in a high number of toothbrushes (49%), followed by Pseudomonas spp (37%), Staphylococcus aureus (32%), Streptococcus mutans (14%), coliforms (9%) and Candida albicans (3%). Decontamination of toothbrushes with Andolex C and Listerine® reduced the number of contaminated toothbrushes by 74% each, Brushtox by 90% and water by 0.0% CONCLUSION: Toothbrushes were contaminated with various types of microorganisms, but predominantly with CoNS. Although Brushtox is a toothbrush spray, soaking toothbrushes in this solution was the most effective method, reducing the number of disinfected toothbrushes by 90%. Oral health practitioners should raise awareness to their patients regarding the need to disinfect toothbrushes

First social impact bond for the SAMRC: A novel financing strategy to address the health and social challenges facing adolescent girls and young women in South Africa

A social impact bond (SIB) is an innovative financing mechanism to attract investors to social programmes traditionally funded by governments. In this article, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC), the authors describe the SAMRC’s first foray into this new world of financing through a SIB to improve the health and quality of life of adolescent girls and young women (AGYW). The AGYW SIB is in its preparatory phase and is scheduled for implementation in 2020. The authors describe the mechanism, including financial flows and the process of customising the SIB to meet the needs of AGYW, focusing on HIV prevention and treatment and the prevention and management of unintended pregnancies in schoolgoing AGYW. The authors outline an approach to designing the package of interventions, the metrics associated with such a programme and the business model. It is hypothesised that the proposed approach will lead to an improvement in programmatic outcomes, monitoring and evaluation tools and cost-effectiveness, and will develop key learning data for the future use of SIBs in health service delivery