Representatives from 10 sub-Saharan nations and Sudan recently attended a Union course on managing childhood lung disease. The two-week course aimed to address the deficiencies of in-patient paediatric care in resource-poor countries and guided participants in the development of Child Lung Health plans.

Millennium Development Goal 4 calls for reducing the under-five mortality rate by two-thirds. If this goal is to be reached by 2015, then the deficiencies of inpatient paediatric care in resource-poor countries must be addressed.

Up to 20 percent of children assessed at primary level Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) health centres require referral to the next level for admission with severe/very severe pneumonia/disease. Recent studies have identified major problems at these facilities including lack of triage, poor assessment and knowledge of standard case management, late or missed treatments, inadequate supplies of drugs and oxygen and little, if any, regular monitoring or reassessment of severely ill children.

The 1st International Course on the Management of Childhood Lung Disease was organised by the Child Lung Health Division of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union) to address this issue. Participants from 10 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Sudan attended the two-week course held at the CEDHA Centre in Arusha, Tanzania. They included policy makers, paediatricians, general practitioners, nurses, ARI/IMCI programme managers and TB-HIV programme representatives.

The focus of the course was on improving paediatric inpatient care through standard case management of the child aged 0 to 59 months with lung disease including severe pneumonia, tuberculosis, HIV-related lung disease and asthma. Sessions also covered neonatal care, Emergency Triage and Treatment (ETAT) as well as standard case management of co-morbid conditions such as malaria (overlap), malnutrition, meningitis and measles.

At the end of the course representatives from each country had developed and presented a written plan outlining a Child Lung Health programme for inpatient management of the sick child according to the priorities of their country. The plans indicated the domain, setting, policies, case management strategy and the management process for introducing them and scaling them up.

In addition to the content, the course offered the opportunity for health professionals and scientists interested in childhood lung disease and major childhood illnesses to meet and exchange ideas and experiences. Funding for this course was provided by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad).