Child Health Days
The last Child Health Day (CHD) was observed by the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) with the support of UNICEF in DPRK on May 20th, 2010. UNICEF and MoPH staff visited nurseries and ri (rural) clinics in four counties (Unsan, PyokSong, Singye, Yontan) and Daesong district in Pyongyang city. Activities included administration of de-worming and vitamin A tablets to children less than five years of age and provision of Information, Education and Communication (IEC) materials to mothers. The CHD is observed twice yearly for ten years in DPRK. They aim primarily to reduce child morbidity and mortality in addition to promoting the importance of healthy mothers and health education. It is a good opportunity to raise awareness about the most important health issues and to mobilize communities into action. More than 60,000 health workers and nursery care-givers undertook a number of key preventative health initiatives on CHD. DPRK has an adequate healthcare structure and has a ratio of approximately one house-hold doctor per 130 house-holds. This means that access to healthcare is facilitated by the high number of doctors, which is important in a country where the terrain consists of 80% mountainous area. Clinics are built within reach of most people, and activities are informed to the patients via peoples committees. This allows for coverage of activities to reach approximately 98%, a notable effort given that mothers reach the clinic by foot. UNICEF is assisting government efforts to carry out CHDs throughout DPRK. According to Mr.Bijaya Rajbhandari (Country Representative, UNICEF) “there would be a greater impact if we could involve more partners in the monitoring of CHD. We also need to have the feedback reporting system to improve on what we are doing. We could also use this opportunity to give other public health messages alike ORS, IDD use etc.” De-worming and vitamin A tablets play a vital role to improve child well-being. Worm burden is an important factor for malnutrition, growth stunting and poor school performance. Vitamin A deficiency can lead to serious complications such as blindness, increased risk from disease and death from severe infections. Vitamin A provision is vital for children’s health from an early age. The theme “A healthy mother, for a healthy baby” was promoted through a leaflet. These leaflets aimed at new mothers and provided useful and clear information on pregnancy, delivery, antenatal and postnatal care as well as the importance of the father’s role in house-holds with newborn children. Over the past two years, themes have included “Preventing illness through good hygiene” during spring and summer months, and “Looking after a child with cough and cold” during the autumn and winter months. Activities promoted diarrhoea prevention and hand washing coupled with demonstration of ORS preparation and using soap with water for hand washing, as well as, prevention of ARI followed by distribution of IEC materials on the topic. County officials told that CHD provides an opportunity to mothers to take their children for necessary treatment if required. Some children were even dressed up for the occasion in colourful clothes. When asked about the importance of CHD, Mr. Bijaya Rajbhandari said “It (CHD) is very important for the betterment of child health and nutrition as it reaches to such a large number of children. This strategy has proven to reach out to almost all children in the country. Vitamin A is a very important public health intervention which has proven to reduce child mortality and maximizes its impact with de-worming tablets. Having it every 6 months, people know the day and look forward to observing it”.
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