Diarrhoea control: the experience of a health team in a primary care unit Algeria.

This article reports the experiences of a primary health care unit located in Algerias Zeralda district in the control of diarrhea. Curative and preventive care is provided to the adult and child populations of the district by a medical and paramedical team. The overall goal of the diarrheal control program initiated in 1980 is to combat mortality from diarrhea in children under 2 years of age. Intermediate goals include improvement of care provided to infants with diarrhea early hospitalization of cases of diarrhea improvement of contacts between the primary care unit and the hospital and prevention of diarrhea. Children in the target group are located through use of a register of children living in the district and their families are sent cards containing information on diarrhea and its control. Children are followed from the 1st day of consultation for diarrhea until the 30th day after the episode. Record keeping and careful follow-up are stressed. In 1983 335 children 18 months of age or younger (47% of the target population) consulted health structures in Zeralda for diarrhea. About 1/3 of children fail to return for follow-up visits. This is attributed both to long waits in the clinic and the fact that children are usually cured by the time of this visit. The number of children hospitalized for acute dehydration has declined from 33 in 1980 to 18 in 1983; the number of deaths from dehydration declined from 16 to 8 in this same period.