DUSHANBE, March 30, 2013, Asia-Plus – According to the Delegation of the European Union to Tajikistan, the WHO EURO recommends the Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) as a major strategy for child survival, healthy growth and development.  The strategy is based on the combined delivery of essential interventions at the community, health facility and health systems levels. IMCI includes elements of prevention as well as curative care and addresses the most common conditions that affect young children.  The IMCI strategy, since its introduction in 1997, has increasingly been accepted by countries in the WHO European region and has been implemented in Tajikistan since 2000.

In 2012 WHO EURO supported the first training to introduce the IMCI Innovative Computerized Adaptation and Training tool (ICATT) to facilitate scale-up of IMCI implementation in Tajikistan.  With the support of WHO and USAID Quality Health Care Project, the IMCI ICATT was adapted to country needs by a team of national experts.

From March 25 to March 30, the WHO Country Office in Tajikistan and USAID Quality Health Care Project conducted a training of trainers to strengthen the capacity of national trainers to implement ICATT.  The training was conducted by local experts with technical support from WHO international consultant, Dr. Ekaterina Stasii.

The training tool allows wider coverage of integrated services provision through training of primary health care workers on IMCI, adaptation of the program in accordance with country needs and a reduction in training time and expenses.  The tool also allows the IMCI program to be regularly updated and facilitates/encourages the use of new computer-based methods of learning at the pre- and in-service levels of education by expanding the range of IMCI teaching methods in Tajikistan.

“Our main goal under this initiative is to reduce childhood mortality through strengthening of national health systems capacity to improve the quality of pediatric care for common childhood illnesses at the primary health care level, which is critical to improving the sustainability of the health care system in Tajikistan”- said Dr Pavel Ursu, WHO Representative/Head of WHO Country Office in Tajikistan.

WHO is implementing this activity within the framework of the EU-funded “Technical Assistance in Support of Health Care Reform in Tajikistan” Project.  The specific objective of the project is to strengthen institutional capacity of the Ministry of Health to deliver population-based and results-oriented service with a focus on primary health care.