Volume 17, Number 4—April 2011
Research
Effects of Hand Hygiene Campaigns on Incidence of Laboratory-confirmed Influenza and Absenteeism in Schoolchildren, Cairo, Egypt
Maha Talaat
, Salma Afifi, Erica Dueger, Nagwa El-Ashry, Anthony Marfin, Amr Kandeel, Emad Mohareb, and Nasr El-Sayed
, Salma Afifi, Erica Dueger, Nagwa El-Ashry, Anthony Marfin, Amr Kandeel, Emad Mohareb, and Nasr El-SayedTable 2
Incidence of absences caused by illness and reasons for absence in control and intervention schools, Cairo, Egypt, February 16–May 12, 2008*
| Absence caused by illness | Control, n = 282,832 student-weeks |
Intervention, n = 250,584 student-weeks |
Reduction, % | p value | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. episodes | Median (IQR) | No. episodes | Median (IQR) | ||||
| Overall illness | 19,094 | 7.2 (3.3–9.5) | 13,247 | 5.7 (3.4–7.6) | 21 | <0.0001 | |
| ILI | 1,671 | 0.5 (0.3–1.1) | 917 | 0.3 (0.1–0.7) | 40 | <0.0001 | |
| Diarrhea | 1,316 | 0.3 (0.1–0.6) | 639 | 0.2 (0.0–0.5) | 33 | <0.0001 | |
| Conjunctivitis | 1,214 | 0.3 (0.1–0.6) | 530 | 0.1 (0.0–0.4) | 67 | <0.0001 | |
*IQR, interquartile range; ILI, influenza-like illness.
