INTEGRATED MANAGEMENT OF NEWBORN AND CHILDHOOD ILLNESSES: BETWEEN FAILURE AND RESURRECTION, A REAL OPPORTUNITY FOR CHILD HEALTH.

Abstract

In Cameroon, vertical key programs considered as agship health programs compete the strategy of "Integrated Management of Newborn and Childhood Illnesses" (IMNCI). The IMNCI guide contains all the recommendations for effective implementation at a
lower cost. Meanwhile, less than 20% of health districts has health facilities with at least 60% of staff skilled in IMNCI, threshold required for its measurable impact on child survival. The leadership in IMNCI is questionable; it interventions are not only confused
with those of key programs, but also overlap in different departments of the Ministry of Health. The challenge revolves around locating sustainable funding sources to expand IMNCI. Its introduction into the academic programs of training institutions is among cost-effective solutions. Elsewhere, it requires the pooling of resources of the key programs in a common basket fund. The advantages brought by IMNCI represent a real opportunity for the Cameroon health system, so to reverse the oblivion it is suffering.
The indifference IMNCI suffers should under no circumstance be judged as a failure without the government having mobilized its own resources to ensure it rebirth. There is a need to resize IMNCI into a wider system of primary health care services institutionalized within the Family Health Department.