Why HIFA2015 is needed
Every day, tens of thousands of children, women and men die needlessly for want of simple, low-cost interventions - interventions that are often already locally available. A major contributing factor is that the mother, family caregiver or health worker does not have access to the information and knowledge they need, when they need it, to make appropriate decisions and save lives:
8 in 10 caregivers in developing countries do not know the two key symptoms of childhood pneumonia - fast and difficult breathing - which indicate the need for urgent treatment (only 20% of children with pneumonia receive antibiotics despite wide availability, and 2 million die each year) [1]
4 in 10 mothers in India believed that they should withhold fluids if their baby develops diarrhoea (worldwide, 1.8 million children die every year from dehydration due to diarrhoea). [2]
3 in 4 doctors caring for sick children in district hospitals in Bangladesh, Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Philippines, Tanzania, and Uganda had poor basic knowledge of leading causes of child death such as childhood pneumonia, severe malnutrition, and sepsis. [3]
4 in 10 family doctors in Pakistan used tranquilisers as their first-line treatment for hypertension. [4]
7 in 10 children with malaria treated at home are mismanaged, contributing to 2000 deaths every day in Africa alone. [5]
7 in 10 women giving birth in health facilities in Africa and South Asia were incorrectly managed during the 3rd stage of labour, predisposing them to postpartum haemorrhage. PPH kills more than 500 young women every day in the developing world. [6]
More than half of patients attending primary health centres in India were incorrectly prescribed a harmful treatment. [7]
Importantly, this situation is not the fault of healthcare providers. Healthcare providers can only function effectively if their basic professional needs are met.
References
[1] Wardlaw T et al. Pneumonia: the leading killer of children. Lancet 2006;368:1048-50
[2] Wadhwani N. An integrated approach to reduce childhood mortality and morbidity due to diarrhoea and dehydration.
http://hetv.org/india/mh/plan/hetvplan.pdf
[3] Nolan T et al. Quality of hospital care for seriously ill children in less-developed countries. Lancet 2001;357(9250):106-10
[4] Jafar TH et al. General practitioners’ approach to hypertension in urban Pakistan: disturbing trends in practice. Circulation 2005;111(10):1278-83.
[5] Mozumder P & Marathe A. Role of information and communication networks in malaria survival. Malaria Journal 2007;6:136
[6] Stanton C et al. Use of active management of the third stage of labour in seven developing countries. WHO Bulletin 2009;87:207-215
[7] India Development Policy Review, 2006
Further reading
Godlee F, Pakenham-Walsh N, Ncayiyana D, Cohen B, Packer A. Can we achieve health information for all by 2015? Lancet 2004;364(9430):295-300
Pakenham-Walsh N & Bukachi F. Information needs of health care workers in developing countries: a literature review with a focus on Africa. Human Resources for Health 2009, 7:30 doi:10.1186/1478-4491-7-30
