Strengthening national planning and re-prioritizing diarrheal disease
At the National Pediatric Hospital in Hanoi, Vietnam, one in ten pediatric inpatients are admitted due to complications from diarrhea—and sometimes this number is even higher. Ten times as many are treated as outpatients, making diarrheal disease and the severe dehydration that comes with it among the hospital’s top two pediatric concerns (the other is pneumonia).
Through the early and mid-2000s, awareness of the threat posed by diarrheal disease and the simple solutions to prevent and treat it stood stagnant. Clinical progress was stymied by outdated guidelines for physicians and nurses that hadn’t been updated in more than a decade.
Through our existing relationships with health officials in Vietnam and bringing to bear our in-country presence and partnerships, PATH recognized an opportunity to develop a strategy that bridged policy with community health delivery. A multi-faceted effort catalyzed immediate impact and ensured sustainability by bringing the national guidelines up to date, training and equipping health workers, and raising community awareness nationwide. A model project put it all into practice, while gathering lessons learned that would inform national rollout and, ultimately, expansion of enhanced diarrheal disease efforts throughout the Mekong region.
Contributed by PATH
Update: After a two year effort, zinc is now officially listed as an essential drug by the Ministry of Health in Vietnam, meaning that zinc must be provided for free to children under 5 by both the public sector and private insurance companies. Learn more about the process from our blog, "Zinc in Vietnam: from policy to practice."
Better sanitation and health through education
Implementing activities in schools has always been essential to EAST Vietnam’s commitment for people living in difficult socio-sanitary conditions. Since its establishment in Vietnam in 1994, EAST has implemented five several-year school programs in four Vietnamese provinces. These programs benefit pupils from 165 primary and secondary schools. Every school program implemented aims at improving sanitary conditions in schools, in order to lower water-related diseases among children.
To achieve this objective, EAST Vietnam implements several complementary activities. First, they provide schools with water supply and sanitation systems by improving drinking water systems, building latrines with septic tanks, and setting up cement pits for solid waste.
Moreover, they train school teachers on a new and participative health education method. Based on the use of drawings and active participation of pupils, this method teaches students about safe water, hygiene, and health to children. Conceptual lessons are completed by practical exercises, so that children can adopt best hygiene practices, such as handwashing with soap.
Finally, in order to reinforce the supervision of children’s health within the school, an infirmary equipped with basic medicines and small equipment is implemented or rehabilitated in each school. School health agents are trained on basic interventions and medicines stock control. They have the responsibility of renewing the stock of medicines when needed, and they are able to provide children with basic medical care in case of simple diseases or incidents. In case of more complicated troubles, they bring children to the communal dispensary.
Contributed by EAST Vietnam