Integrated Management of Childhood Health in the Eastern Mediterranean Region

Abstract

Preventable and treatable diseases are significant causes for the high mortality in young children. More than two-thirds of deaths in young children are attributed to five conditions which are also responsible for 80–90% of outpatient consultations. In the latter part of the twentieth century, global meetings alerted many countries and the international health community to the severity of the situation of child morbidity and mortality. The response to this situation was to package a set of simple, affordable, and effective interventions for the combined management of the major childhood illnesses and malnutrition, under the label of “Integrated Management of Childhood Illness” (IMCI) developed by the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund in the early 1990s. This chapter focuses on the rationale of developing and implementing IMCI; its action, phases, components, and targeted health conditions; and the international multicountry evaluation efforts.

The chapter details the context of IMCI implementation in the Eastern Mediterranean Region since its inception in 1996 and how the initial main focus of improving clinical care had developed to address not only the sick child but also the healthy child, in health facilities and in the home. Thus, attention in the Region was increasingly given to the development of a strategy on integrated childcare by broadening its scope into the Integrated Management of Child Health while still retaining its original acronym “IMCI.” The chapter addresses the development of IMCI at the country level, illustrating the stages of implementation, barriers, constrains, success, and ongoing evaluation efforts.