The Magnitude of Under-five Emergencies in a Resource-poor Environment of a Rural Hospital in Eastern Nigeria: Implication for Strengthening the House-hold and Community-integrated Management of Childhood Illnesses.
BACKGROUND
Under-five in Nigeria are the most vulnerable group that are often challenged by emergency health conditions.


OBJECTIVE
The study was to describe the magnitude of under-five emergencies in a resource-poor environment of a rural hospital in eastern Nigeria.


METHODS
A descriptive cross-sectional hospital-based study of 282 under-five patients with emergency health conditions at a rural Hospital in Imo state, eastern Nigeria. Data extracted included bio-data and diagnosis.


RESULTS
A total of 282 under-five emergencies were studied. The ages of the patients ranged from 12 days to 58 months with mean age of 34 ± 9.4 months. There were 153 (54.3%) males and 129 (45.7%) females with male to female ratio of 1.2: 1. The three most common causes of under-five emergencies were acute uncomplicated malaria (29.1%), severe malaria anemia (24.5%), and acute respiratory infections (22.7%). The predominant outcome of emergency admission was discharged home (83.0%). The preeminent cause of death was severe malaria anemia (81.8%). All deaths occurred within 24 hours of hospitalization.


CONCLUSIONS
The three most common under-five emergencies were infectious medical emergencies and the preeminent cause of death was malaria-related. Strengthening the quality of the Roll Back Malaria Initiative, household and community-integrated management of childhood illnesses will help to reduce these preventable medical emergencies and deaths.
Department of Family Medicine, Federal Medical Centre, Umuahia, Abia state, Nigeria.
Gabriel Up
GU
Iloh
John N
JN
Ofoedu
Patrick U
PU
Njoku
Agwu N
AN
Amadi
Ezinne U
EU
Godswill-Uko