CHIFA and our sister forum HIFA (general health) are currently working with WHO to support the uptake and development of the WHO guidance Maintaining essential health services during the COVID pandemic. In particular, we want to hear from you how COVID-19 has impacted on the provision of child health services in your country or your health facility, and how you have responded to these challenges. What responses have worked well to maintain services and, conversely, what have been particularly challenging or even ineffective.
This blog from 'Acting on the Call Bulletin: Updates on USAID’s Efforts to End Preventable Child and Maternal Deaths' provides two examples of effective response, both using ICT. Extracts below, full text here: https://medium.com/usaid-2030/the-nutrition-crisis-hidden-within-the-pan...
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COVID-19 imperils nutrition gains and makes our work more urgent than ever
The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented threat to nutrition. It is simultaneously disrupting every sector that families rely on to nourish their children. As families’ incomes drop, they can no longer afford nutritious foods. Producers and sellers of nutritious foods are struggling to stay afloat. Health systems are overwhelmed, families are more reluctant to access needed healthcare, and efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19, while necessary, are decreasing coverage of life-saving care. Misinformation and reduced support make it harder for mothers to breastfeed. The need for humanitarian assistance is growing while it is becoming more difficult to deliver it safely. Social safety nets are struggling to expand to meet growing poverty...
New analyses published in The Lancet by the Standing Together for Nutrition consortium estimate that wasting, the deadliest form of malnutrition in which children become too thin and require treatment, could affect an additional 6.7 million children in 2020. Combined with decreased coverage of life-saving nutrition interventions, this increase in wasting could mean an additional 130,000 children die this year. Half of these deaths would be in sub-Saharan Africa alone...
USAID and its partners have already taken action...
In Colombia... partners have switched nutrition counseling from in-person to cell phones to help families continue breastfeeding and introduce nutritious foods to their infants.
In Zimbabwe, partners are distributing food through smaller groups that make social distancing possible. They are also sharing nutrition counseling and information about COVID-19 through community radio and social media...
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Best wishes, Neil
Let's build a future where children are no longer dying for lack of healthcare information - Join CHIFA (Child Healthcare Information For All): http://www.hifa.org/forums/chifa-child-health-and-rights
CHIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is the coordinator of the HIFA campaign (Healthcare Information For All) and assistant moderator of the CHIFA forum. Twitter: @hifa_org FB: facebook.com/HIFAdotORG neil@hifa.org
