Child health care – a case study in Visakhapatnam district of Andhra Pradesh

Abstract

Children are future society of the world and it is necessary to give importance to their health. Care should be taken to the mother and child health, and the children up to the age of five years in which most of the children prone to many diseases like diarrhea, cholera, typhoid, jaundice, pneumonia, chicken pox, measles etc. The children are prone to these diseases due to malnutrition and lack of proper immunization. This is basically lack of awareness among the illiterate, ignorance of the village population and few people not taking seriously. Preschool children below five years are vulnerable group of the population and their nutritional status is considered to be a sensitive indicator of health and nutrition. Each year, millions of women, new-borns and children die from preventable causes. While the interventions that could save their lives are widely known, they are often not available to those most in need. Government of India proclaimed a National Policy on Children in August 1974 declaring children as, "supremely important asset". The policy provided the required framework for assigning priority to different needs of the child. The programme of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) was launched in 1975 seeking to provide an integrated package of services in a convergent manner for the holistic development of the child. "Understanding how diseases are spread and how to reduce the risks of fresh infection are essential if children are to be cared for safely and healthily. Knowledge of preventive measures and childhood immunization schedule is also important in order to save children from diseases. Data obtained from RCH-2 was used for the study purpose. The data was filtered and analyzed. The statistical Package of Social Science (SPSS) tool was used for analysis of data. The total women of 731 in the age group of 15-44 and the children in the age group of 0-6 years were 242 in the study area of the district. Immunization of the children is a very important component of the Universal Immunization Programme (UIP) started by the Government of India in 1985-86. To understand the coverage of immunization, data of all those children who were twelve months and above and born since 1st January 1999 to the time of survey were collected. As recommended by World Health Organization (WHO) breast feeding should be initiated immediately after birth and should be continued exclusively up to four months. The WHO also suggests that the yellowish milk, known as colostrum’s, should be given to the baby because it provides protection against certain infections. Children age 6-24 months is most vulnerable to anemia and it can result in impaired cognitive performance, behavioral and motor development, co-ordination, language development and scholastic achievement, besides increasing morbidity from infectious diseases. Anemia among pregnant women results in increased risk of premature delivery and low birth weight. The Antenatal check-ups are necessary during the pregnancy of a woman. The mother and children’s health of the district will be vital and valuable source of information for making further improvements in child health policies and programmes. Government, Health organization, NGO’s and anganwadi workers should create more awareness and treatment practices on childhood diseases among pregnant women, mothers and children to reduce the mortality rate in the district