Camp setting

Background: Refugees are at high risk for communicable diseases due to overcrowding and poor water, sanitation,
and hygiene conditions. Handwashing with soap removes pathogens from hands and reduces disease risk. A
hepatitis E outbreak in the refugee camps of Maban County, South Sudan in 2012 prompted increased hygiene
promotion and improved provision of soap, handwashing stations, and latrines. We conducted a study 1 year after

Displaced adolescent girls and women face many challenges managing their monthly menstrual flow with dignity
and comfort in various challenging settings around the world, such as refugee camps, informal settlements, and
while in transit across geographies as they flee disaster or conflict. Menstrual hygiene management requires easy
access to safe, private water and sanitation facilities, along with appropriate menstrual materials and supplies, discreet

This tool is meant to be used in the first and second stage of an emergency response where there is no time to implement a comprehensive consultation and participation process. The tool will help you to decide rapidly what and where sanitation facilities need to be built based on what women (but not exclusively), need with a minimum of effort or specialized expertise required. It is assumed that general WatSan needs are already assessed at this point.

Objective To investigate the concentration of residual chlorine in drinking water supplies in refugee camps, South Sudan, March–April 2013. Methods For each of three refugee camps, we measured physical and chemical characteristics of water supplies at four points after distribution: (i) directly from tapstands; (ii) after collection; (iii) after transport to households; and (iv) after several hours of household storage.

In humanitarian emergency settings there is need for low cost and rapidly deployable interventions to protect vulnerable children, in- and out-of-school, from diarrhoeal diseases. Handwashing with soap can greatly reduce diarrhoea but interventions specifically targeting children's handwashing behaviour in humanitarian settings have not been tested. Traditional children's handwashing promotion interventions have been school-focused, resource-intensive and reliant on health-based messaging.

Cholera continues to be a significant problem in humanitarian settings, with recent outbreaks in displaced populations in South Sudan, Yemen, Cameroon, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, Haiti, and Iraq. The success of cholera prevention and control in refugee camps over the past 2 decades highlights the possibility of managing this deadly disease, even in complicated humanitarian crises.

The rapid influx of Rohingya refugees into Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, has led to the formation of huge camps, built on difficult terrain, short of space and with high population density. All these factors present numerous challenges to agencies seeking to provide latrines, water points, and bathing facilities. Feedback gathered from women and girls highlighted significant challenges around access, safety, privacy, and dignity, including management of personal hygiene and menstruation.

The objective of this review is to identify sanitation failures that have contributed to the occurrence of diarrhoeal disease outbreaks among displaced populations living in camps. Three electronic databases (Medline, Embase, Global Health) and reference lists were searched for peer-reviewed literature using a systematic approach. Articles published since 1960 describing both diarrhoeal disease outbreaks and sanitation characteristics in camps hosting displaced populations were included.

The reliance on chlorination in humanitarian operations has raised concerns among practitioners about possible health risks associated with disinfection by-products; however, to date, there has not been an evaluation of disinfection by-product (DBP) levels in an emergency water supply intervention. This study aimed to investigate DBP levels at a surface-water treatment plant serving a refugee settlement in northern Uganda using the colorimetric Hach THM Plus Method.

Engaging communities in humanitarian programming is key to ensuring their participation in decision-making that affects them as outlined by commitment 4 of the Core Humanitarian Standards.