Seeing red: training healthworkers to screen for anaemia in pregnancy.

Since pregnant women and children are the major groups at risk for anemia WHO has developed Haemoglobin Colour Scale test to respond to the deficiencies of other forms of testing. To evaluate the tests effectiveness in poorly- resourced areas the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and partners conducted a study in the rural areas of Gambia. It is noted that the success of the test in screening programs depends on the training given to health workers and their ability to interpret findings. Moreover the study noted the impracticality of WHO’S training protocol. This is due to the difficulty in obtaining test blood samples and the increase for travel and accommodation costs for health workers. However clinical examination is cheap but has variable reliability. Although laboratory tests show accuracy these are still inaccessible to health services in many developing countries.