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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Rosanna Agble, MS, Ministry of Health/Ghana, Nutrition Unit, P.O. Box M78, Accra, Ghana, 223 21 662778, nutrition@ighmail.com
Project: Three strategies were designed for the post-NIDs supplementation to ensure maintenance of the high coverage achieved with NIDs. These were the use of health contacts, community level volunteers, and a child-to-child approach. Despite low awareness of the importance of vitamin A on the part of both health workers and caregivers, an intensive IEC campaign using a combination of traditional means of information dissemination and the media created high demand for capsules. Adequate planning, systematic training, and logistic management were also crucial in this process.
Setting: The capsule distribution covered the entire country and all regions completed the program within a two-week period.
Partners: Health workers, teachers, community volunteers, journalists, traditional rulers, churches, the Government of Ghana, and international organizations.
Results: Coverage achieved during post-NIDs is comparable with that of NIDs. In the January 2000 supplementation combined with NIDs the coverage was 90.4%, while in the July distribution that was post-NIDS, the validated coverage was 81%. In May 2001, the validated coverage for post-NIDs supplementation increased to 96%. The regional coverage range was 53.8%-108%, the lowest being in the regions that used the child-to-child approach.
Conclusions: A combination of strategies coupled with social mobilization has been used to ensure sustained high coverage of vitamin A capsule distribution in Ghana. The combined use of existing local structures and means of communication has contributed immensely to the success of the program. In future distribution it is important to give adequate training to service providers on the benefits of vitamin A as well as the time frame for distribution of supplements.
Additional Authors: Esi Amoaful, Albertha Nyarko
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Public Health Policy, Nutrition
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.