Monitoring selective components of primary health care: methodology and community assessment of vaccination, diarrhoea, and malaria practices in Conakry, Guinea. ACSI-CCCD team.

The Africa Child Survival Initiative-Combatting Childhood Communicable Diseases (ACSI-CCCD) Project is a primary health care activity that focuses on antenatal care, immunization, diarrhoeal disease control, and malaria control in children under 5 years of age. In order to gauge progress made in the project, a community-based health interview survey to measure simultaneously several prevention and treatment indicators was carried out in 1986 in Conakry, Guinea. A sample of 1415 caretakers and their 2048 children aged under 5 years was visited using a cluster sampling technique. The survey documented the levels of literacy and health education awareness of the caretakers, measured the vaccination coverage levels for children and women of childbearing age, and determined treatment practices for diarrhoea and malaria. Of the 637 women who reported having given birth in the previous 12 months, 96% had visited an antenatal clinic, but only 49% had had two or more doses of tetanus toxoid, and 13% took weekly chemoprophylaxis against malaria. The vaccination coverage for measles was 16% for children aged 12-23 months. Oral rehydration therapy (ORT) was given to 16% of children with diarrhoea; however, only 43% of those who were administered ORT at home were treated according to standard guidelines. Of children with diarrhoea, 51% were given antidiarrhoeal or antimicrobial drugs by caretakers. Fever was treated at home for 79% of the febrile children, and 43% of those with fever also visited health units. The use of injectable antimalarials and prolonged treatments with chloroquine were common. Combining findings from a population-based community study with an assessment of practices in health facilities can provide reliable information for the implementation and monitoring of selective components of primary health care.