Global consensus exists around the basic child health interventions that would reduce child mortality. Expanding routine immunizations and promoting appropriate feeding practices are critically important. Childbirth needs to be safe, and newborns must receive adequate care. Appropriate practices can prevent diarrhea, acute respiratory infections, malaria, and HIV & AIDS. The means to diagnose and treat these conditions must also be extended.
But health interventions can only be effective if they respond to local patterns of disease and recognize community practices that affect health. Local culture and conditions can present obstacles to improving nutrition, preventing childhood illness, or adhering to malaria treatment.
Through BASICS, RPM Plus, and field projects, MSH works with countries to develop community-based systems and expand existing health services to reach all children, especially the most vulnerable. It develops management processes to get quality medicines and supplies into the hands of those who need them and to make sure they are used appropriately. It strives to integrate newborn health interventions into child survival programs.
BASICS makes sure that community caregivers and providers apply state-of-the-art, evidenced-based practices on a scale that will significantly reduce infant and child mortality. To do this, it works through local organizations with wide coverage to promote such practices as exclusively breastfeeding infants, using insecticide-treated bednets, giving oral rehydration salts for diarrhea, and appropriately treating pneumonia and malaria.
It is also important to protect investments in child health and other programs by creating linkages. For example, HIV & AIDS programs may initiate prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV & AIDS or treatment with antiretrovirals (ARVs). BASICS helps to assure that the infants in PMTCT programs receive not only ARVs but also essential newborn care and follow-up with prophylactic medicines. It also prevents children who receive ARVs from dying of diarrhea or other likely causes.
Through BASICS, MSH has contributed substantially to advancing child health and nutrition, even in large countries. For example, in 20 local government areas in Nigeria, BASICS worked with local partners to increase exclusive breastfeeding of infants from 10% to 34% over a two-year period. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, it raised measles immunization coverage from a plateau of 25% three years earlier to 52% through sustainable methods.
In India, working with CARE’s network and others, BASICS demonstrated the effectiveness of an essential newborn care package of services and greatly improved local practices of feeding young children. In all three countries, it helped 60% of children who were deficient in micronutrients achieve an adequate intake of vitamin A.
Examples of BASIC's projects include:
But health interventions can only be effective if they respond to local patterns of disease and recognize community practices that affect health. Local culture and conditions can present obstacles to improving nutrition, preventing childhood illness, or adhering to malaria treatment.
Through BASICS, RPM Plus, and field projects, MSH works with countries to develop community-based systems and expand existing health services to reach all children, especially the most vulnerable. It develops management processes to get quality medicines and supplies into the hands of those who need them and to make sure they are used appropriately. It strives to integrate newborn health interventions into child survival programs.
BASICS makes sure that community caregivers and providers apply state-of-the-art, evidenced-based practices on a scale that will significantly reduce infant and child mortality. To do this, it works through local organizations with wide coverage to promote such practices as exclusively breastfeeding infants, using insecticide-treated bednets, giving oral rehydration salts for diarrhea, and appropriately treating pneumonia and malaria.
It is also important to protect investments in child health and other programs by creating linkages. For example, HIV & AIDS programs may initiate prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV & AIDS or treatment with antiretrovirals (ARVs). BASICS helps to assure that the infants in PMTCT programs receive not only ARVs but also essential newborn care and follow-up with prophylactic medicines. It also prevents children who receive ARVs from dying of diarrhea or other likely causes.
Through BASICS, MSH has contributed substantially to advancing child health and nutrition, even in large countries. For example, in 20 local government areas in Nigeria, BASICS worked with local partners to increase exclusive breastfeeding of infants from 10% to 34% over a two-year period. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, it raised measles immunization coverage from a plateau of 25% three years earlier to 52% through sustainable methods.
In India, working with CARE’s network and others, BASICS demonstrated the effectiveness of an essential newborn care package of services and greatly improved local practices of feeding young children. In all three countries, it helped 60% of children who were deficient in micronutrients achieve an adequate intake of vitamin A.
Examples of BASIC's projects include:
- Extending community-based treatment through coalitions in Africa
- Integrating newborn care and PMTCT in southern Africa
- Incorporating case management with more effective drugs into malaria control in Asia
- Scaling up newborn care and essential nutrition to 100 million people in Asia