Design-Stage Trial of Gentamicin in the Uniject Device

observation of the FCHVs giving gentamicin in Uniject. Additionally, 14 call forms were given forregular gentamicin injections for babies who weighed more than 3.5 kg, and 1 was referred afternot giving consent for treatment by the FCHV. All 33 first cases treated by FCHVs were supervisedeveryday for 7 days by their immediate supervisors, and the remaining 34 cases were all supervisedfor the second dose. In all 67 cases, the FCHVs followed the correct disposal of used gentamicinin Uniject devices by placing them in the disposal box without recapping and by returning the fulldisposal boxes to their respective supervisors.Timing of care for PBSIAround 82% of sick young infants received their first dose of gentamicin in Uniject on the sameday as their first contact with the FCHV/VHW/MCHW/HF. The median time for the first visitprovided by the FCHVs for sick young infants and the gap between the onset of illness and the firstdose of gentamicin in Uniject was 2 days (Table 13). This suggests that FCHVs were able toinitiate treatment for PSBI immediately upon their first visit. According to the caretaker interviews,the median time lag between the first dose of cotrimoxazole-p and the first dose of gentamicin inUniject was 6.5 hours, due to the study requirement that supervisors be present at the time ofinjection of the first case.Table 13. Timing of care for PSBI by FCHVs.Median days of FCHV first visit for all young infants*Median days of onset of illness to FCHV first visit for sick babies*Median days of illness to first dose of gentamicin in Uniject*Median time lag between cotrimoxazole-p and first dose ofgentamicin in Uniject**2 days (minimum 0, maximum 59 days)2 days (minimum 0, maximum 9 days)2 days (minimum 0, maximum 9 days)6.5 hours (minimum 1, max 24 hours)4.4 Ease of use of the gentamicin in Uniject device by FCHVsAmong the 45 FCHVs, 40 FCHVs (89%) reported that activation of the gentamicin in Unijectdevice was easy and the remaining 5 FCHVs (11%) found it acceptable. None of the FCHVsreported activation of gentamicin in Uniject was difficult. Similarly, 35 FCHVs (78%) found it easyto give gentamicin in Uniject, 9 (20%) felt it was acceptable, and 1 FCHV reported difficultieswhile giving gentamicin in Uniject. Eighty percent (n=36) of the FCHVs liked the gentamicin inUniject device very much, while 16% (n=7) liked it but had some problems, and 4% (n=2) did notlike the device.Among the 45 FCHVs, 43 reported that they did not face any difficulties while giving gentamicin inUniject in the eggplant during training. However, among the 33 FCHVs who used gentamicin inUniject for treating young infants, 2 FCHVs reported that they had difficulty squeezing the bulb toinject the entire dose of medicine; they also faced problems while trying to hold the baby in thecorrect position.FCHVs in all five FGDs expressed confidence in their selection of the correct dose of gentamicinin Uniject. Selecting the correct dose required the FCHVs to weigh the baby, identify the newborn’sFinal Report(32) Gentamicin in Uniject: A Feasibility Study