Neo­na­tal and pre­ma­tu­re infant medi­ci­ne Asma­ra

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

After the safest pos­si­ble birth, cli­ni­cal neo­na­to­lo­gy plays an important role in deve­lo­ping count­ries. This is becau­se a lar­ge num­ber of deaths can be pre­ven­ted by simp­le mea­su­res such as clean water and dis­in­fec­tants as well as edu­ca­ti­on about breast­fee­ding and skin cont­act imme­dia­te­ly after birth. The aim of the Ger­man and Swiss teams, con­sis­ting of paed­ia­tric inten­si­ve care nur­ses and neo­na­to­lo­gists, is to pro­vi­de fur­ther edu­ca­ti­on and trai­ning for their Eri­tre­an col­le­agues in order to impro­ve the infants’ chan­ces of sur­vi­val. This has also been mea­sur­a­b­ly suc­cessful sin­ce the ward has been regu­lar­ly sup­port­ed by ARCHEMED teams. In addi­ti­on to being equip­ped with modern medi­cal tech­no­lo­gy that is easy to use under the given con­di­ti­ons, the teams are trai­ned direct­ly on the pati­ent to ensu­re com­pe­tence and safe­ty in deal­ing with the youn­gest pati­ents.

Up to 1,800 child­ren are now trea­ted on the neo­na­to­lo­gy ward in Asma­ra every year. The trend of incre­asing admis­si­on num­bers, which has been reco­g­nisable for years, is still con­ti­nuing.