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PARIS: A simple checklist of symptoms for severe illness could save tens of thousands of newborns in poor countries, according to a study.
The guidelines could help village caregivers make speedy, accurate diagnoses of ailing infants, helping to identify those who need urgent hospitalisation, it says.
Some four million babies die every year during the first 28 days of life, three-quarters of them within seven days from causes ranging from infection, birth asphyxia and sepsis to pneumonia and meningitis.
Researchers in Bangladesh, Bolivia, Ghana, India, Pakistan and South Africa drew up the guidelines after selecting for study 3,177 babies under seven days old and 5,712 infants aged seven to 59 days.
Frontline health workers were asked to look for any of 12 important symptoms, any of which would prompt a referral to the next level of healthcare.
The results, checked afterwards by specialised paediatricians, showed a
The guidelines could help village caregivers make speedy, accurate diagnoses of ailing infants, helping to identify those who need urgent hospitalisation, it says.
Some four million babies die every year during the first 28 days of life, three-quarters of them within seven days from causes ranging from infection, birth asphyxia and sepsis to pneumonia and meningitis.
Researchers in Bangladesh, Bolivia, Ghana, India, Pakistan and South Africa drew up the guidelines after selecting for study 3,177 babies under seven days old and 5,712 infants aged seven to 59 days.
Frontline health workers were asked to look for any of 12 important symptoms, any of which would prompt a referral to the next level of healthcare.
The results, checked afterwards by specialised paediatricians, showed a
