The Federal Ministry of Health, Ebonyi State Ministry of Health, Pharmacists Council of Nigeria and National Primary Health Care Development Agency has completed a quarterly supervisory visit to the study sites of Integrated Community Case Management Pilot study implemented with Patent and Propriety Medicine Vendors in Ebonyi state. The visit held to ascertain qualitative implementation of the pilot, evaluate PPMVs’ knowledge and performance and reinforce what was learned during the iCCM training of PPMVs.

The assessment focused on PPMVs’ knowledge and use of the iCCM algorithm, understanding of danger signs of a child that needs referral; the appropriate diagnosis and treatment of malaria, diarrhea and pneumonia; skills used to assess the status of a child, counseling skills as well as review of records to verify proper documentation and consistency in case management.

A total of 10 PPMVs were visited in the two intervention LGAs (Ikwo and Onicha). At the end of the visit, the supervisory team were impressed with the level of adherence to training received by PPMVs, particularly with referral of danger signs, diagnosis and treatment of cases. Feedback received from PPMVs indicated quicker recovery of children from common childhood illnesses (Malaria, Diarrhea and Pneumonia) as compared to previous practice.

The Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) in collaboration with Society for Family Health (SFH) and MalariaCare with funding from USAID is conducting an Integrated Community Case Management (iCCM) Pilot study among children under the age of 5, using trained PPMVs to demonstrate that management of common childhood illnesses (malaria, diarrhea and pneumonia) can be substantially improved on a population basis without the use of subsidies for medications or introduction of new types of providers.

This pilot is implemented as part of interventions to address Nigeria’s childhood mortality challenges. Evidence from National surveys has shown that in Nigeria, an estimated 65% of Under 5 (U5) mortality is due to malaria, pneumonia and diarrhea (NDHS, 2008). All three diseases if detected early can be treated effectively with a set of simple medications – ACT for malaria, ORS/Zinc for diarrhea and amoxicillin for pneumonia. However, in Nigeria, current treatment of these 3 diseases is poor.