CHILDREN’S HEALTH

ERIC Atmore‘s letter in the Cape Times on September 25, as well as the article on September 20, are calls for the need for intervention in target areas.

Unquestionably the most vulnerable of our children are those in their first year of life. In fact, the first 1 000 days of children’s lives have become the focus of multiple sectors, including health.

WHO and Unicef had already developed strategies to address health issues facing under-5-year-olds in the 1980s. The main emphasis was on integrating preventive and treatment services. Empowerment of mothers was a critical element: key family practices provide the capacity of caregivers to make essential health judgements. The mother will have simple skills to distinguish and manage mild illness, such as coughs and colds or diarrhoea, from more serious illnesses requiring professional intervention. At this primary level, community health workers and child and youth care workers play a fundamental role.

Our Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsualedi, has stated clearly that this country’s health-care focus must be at primary level. This would mean that the infrastructure for a healthy environment, in addition to optimal professional health care at community-based clinics, must be prioritised and monitored.

Some years ago a group of health professionals initiated an audit of deaths of mothers and children.

If this audit could be carried out regularly, it would assist in providing critical information for the reduction of child mortality, as published in the Lancet 2008; 371:1294-304. The Department of Health and Unicef publication “Save the Children” is largely based on this paper.