Management of the Child with a Serious Infection Or Severe Malnutrition

***This book was awarded the "Prescrire" prize***This manual gives small hospitals in developing countries expert advice on the management of young children suffering from serious infections or severe malnutrition. Addressed to doctors and senior nurses, the manual aims to provide all the practical and technical guidance needed to facilitate quick decisions and life-saving interventions. Although outpatient care is included, the manual concentrates on the inpatient management of diseases known to be the major killers of children in the developing world. Conditions covered range from pneumonia, diarrhea, and severe malnutrition to malaria, meningitis, and measles.The core of the manual provides detailed treatment instructions for individual clinical conditions, specifying the standard course and duration of treatment. Separate chapters cover the management of over twenty diseases in children presenting with cough or difficult breathing, diarrhea, and fever. Additional chapters cover the management of common problems in young infants, of children suffering from severe malnutrition, and of children with HIV/AIDS. The remaining chapters provide detailed guidelines for supportive care, propose a system for the regular monitoring of patients, and offer advice on when and how to discharge the child from hospital.Further practical assistance is provided in five appendices, which offer an illustrated guide to the performance of practical procedures, list of recommended dosages and regimen for some 57 drugs, give formulas and recipes for treating severely malnourished children, and provides tables and charts for assessing nutritional status and recovery. Advice on play therapy and the construction of simple toys is also included. The manual is part of a series of tools that support the WHO Integrated Management of Childhood Illness initiative.