The Implementation of Integrated Management of Childhood Illness ...

c. Diagnoses
Children could be classified with one
or two illnesses at the same time.
Therefore, the number of classifications is
higher than the number of children. The
diagnostic profile of children in the
Monkey Bay health zone during the
research period showed that malaria was
the most common problem and
respiratory infections the second most
common problem in under-fives (Figure
4-3).
Figure 4-4 shows that malaria and
respiratory infections were by far the
Ear
1%
Diarrhoea
4%
Other respiratory
tract infections
26%
Pneumonia
6%
most common diagnoses in all the health facilities. The proportions of patients
classified with other diseases that are dealt with in the IMCI, i.e. diarrhoea and ear
infection were below 10% in all cases. One case of malnutrition was recorded in a
child (1-4 years) in Nankumba during the research period and seven children aged
1-4 years and 6 children aged 5-14 years old were classified to have anaemia.
Eye
2%
Trauma
2%
Skin
7%
Other
classifications
9%
Malaria
43%
Figure 4-3: Disease classifications in U5s. Each
disease-classification as a proportion of the total
number of given classifications. Note: each child
may have up two classifications.
Percentage of children under 5
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
Malaria
Pneumonia
Other respiratory infections
Diarrhoea
Ear
Eye
Skin
Trauma
Other
10%
0%
MBCH (g) Nankumba (g) Malembo (c) Nankhwali (c) Nkope (c)
Figure 4-4: Percentage of under-fives classified with disease. (g) Government-run, (c) CHAM-run.
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