Giving Compass' Take:

• Bold Action to Stop Infections in Clinical Settings (BASICS) is a series of affordable interventions that help prevent infections and have positive economic impacts on local budgets. 

• In what ways can U.S. donors support international healthcare efforts? 

• Learn about what donors should know about women's health in the U.S. and abroad.

Bold Action to Stop Infections in Clinical Settings (BASICS) is centered on an important principle: low-cost interventions accompanied by minimal changes in healthcare practices will have a considerable impact on disease incidence. The cost of preventing an infection is a fraction of the cost of treating one.

High infection prevalence and infection-related mortality are a sizeable economic and social burden, especially in low-income countries. BASICS will catalyze marginal resources in four demonstration countries – Bangladesh, Cambodia, Nigeria and Tanzania – to reduce that burden significantly.

BASICS is metric driven, which allows us to capture the economic impacts in lower-resource settings. It will establish a baseline of current expenditures, track recurrent and investment costs and link those to program outcomes.

BASICS will generate substantial savings from its projected reduction of 1.4 million patient stay days. Our economic analysis will illustrate those savings and build a government and stakeholder coalition to fund BASICS in national and local budgets.

BASICS will deliver cumulative local impacts in each country that will deepen their commitment to the approach. Our learning model will engage government, civil society and private partners on the lessons being generated on the costs and benefits of BASICS, building a powerful local coalition for change. Once that change is delivered, the economic impacts should ultimately prove irresistible to other countries interested in infection prevention.

Read the full article about BASICS at Save the Children.