PEDIATRIC ACTIVITY IN A RURAL HOSPITAL IN TOKOMBERE (CAMEROON) - QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE APPROACH DURING 1 YEAR

Aim. - To describe pediatric care in a North Cameroon rural hospital, the Health Promotion Centre of Tokombere and its coherence in a global project of development. Population and methods. - This prospective an d descriptive study concerned all the children admitted from October 1 993 to October 1994. Analysis of data from a questionnaire has been co nducted with EPI-INFO. Results. - Six hundred and thirty-one children were admitted. The average age was 3.9 years, the sex ratio was 1.45; the percentage of children coming from the Tokombere health area was 7 5%. The predominant pathology involved infections, essentially respira tory and digestive. There were 13% of deaths, two our of three occurri ng before the 48th hour following admission: diarrhea, malaria and lun g infections were the main causes of death. The laboratory tests contr ibuted very little to therapeutic decisions, which were based more on symptomatology and its evolution, than on diagnostic certainties. Drug associations and therapeutic excess were within acceptable limits, bu t possibly improvable. For one-third of the diseases, simple care at h ome was possible, yet only performed in 50% of cases. cases. Conclusio n. - This study points out some deficiencies in management of hospital ized children and suggests improvements without more cost: reorganizat ion of the laboratory, emergency therapeutic protocols, and activities in the villages. (C) 1998 Elsevier, Paris.