Neo­na­tal and Pre­ma­tu­re Infant Medi­ci­ne Asma­ra

The ward for pre­ma­tu­re and sick new­borns in Asma­ra has exis­ted sin­ce 2002 and has been sup­port­ed and accom­pa­nied by two ARCHEMED teams seve­ral times a year sin­ce the asso­cia­ti­on was foun­ded in 2010.

Fol­lo­wing the safest pos­si­ble deli­very, cli­ni­cal neo­na­to­lo­gy plays an important role in deve­lo­ping count­ries. A lar­ge num­ber of deaths can be pre­ven­ted through simp­le mea­su­res such as clean water and dis­in­fec­tants, as well as edu­ca­ti­on about breast­fee­ding and skin-to-skin cont­act imme­dia­te­ly after birth. The goal of the deploy­ments by the Ger­man and Swiss teams, con­sis­ting of pedia­tric inten­si­ve care nur­ses and neo­na­to­lo­gists, is the con­ti­nuing edu­ca­ti­on and trai­ning of Eri­tre­an col­le­agues to impro­ve the sur­vi­val rate of infants. This has mea­sur­a­b­ly suc­cee­ded sin­ce the ward has been regu­lar­ly sup­port­ed by ARCHEMED teams. In addi­ti­on to equip­ping the ward with modern medi­cal tech­no­lo­gy that is well-sui­ted to the given con­di­ti­ons, com­pe­tence and con­fi­dence in hand­ling the smal­lest pati­ents are trai­ned direct­ly at the bedside.

Curr­ent­ly, up to 1,800 child­ren per year are trea­ted at the neo­na­to­lo­gy ward in Asma­ra. The trend of incre­asing admis­si­on num­bers that has been evi­dent for years con­ti­nues.