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Pneumonia Diagnostics

South Sudan

Figure 1. Map of South Sudan and the Northern Barh El Ghazal state

Infant and under-five mortality rate (UMR) are very high in South Sudan (Figure 3) at 75 and 105 deaths per 1000 live births, respectively. The major causes of infant and under-five morbidity and mortality are malaria, pneumonia, diarrhoeal diseases and malnutrition. Pneumonia contributes to 20 percent of the deaths in children under five.

In order to combat the high child mortality rates, iCCM has been implemented in South Sudan since 2005. Currently the iCCM programme is being implemented in 30 of the 79 counties with support from international NGOs.

In South Sudan, Malaria Consortium currently implements iCCM in Aweil Centre and West counties in Northern Barh El Ghazal state (Figure 3). There are 1,683 community drug distributors (CDDs) trained in the Home Management of Malaria programme, with 955 trained for six days on the full iCCM package. The diseases targeted in the iCCM program for assessment, treatment and prevention activities are malaria, diarrhoea, pneumonia and severe acute malnutrition. The majority of CDDs have extremely low literacy and numeracy, and therefore two devices for facilitating counting of respiratory rate in children with cough are currently used – these are UNICEF respiratory timers and counting beads for infants and toddlers. The beads are colour-coded and come in different sizes to separate the two age groups.

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