Helping Hands are Healthy Hands!
Primary Health Care in Laos
Case Study
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An Interview with a Primary Health Care Worker in Laos
Carol, a health worker who is assisting people in Laos through Save the Children Fund and the Australian Government to have better health care was recently interviewed on the health situation of children and their families in Laos.
Interviewer: Are children in Laos as healthy as children in Australia?
Carol: No. In Laos, children are unnecessarily dying of diseases which can be prevented. They die from measles because they haven't been vaccinated, malaria caught through mosquito bites because of lack of medicines and bed nets, chest infections and diarrhoea because they don't have clean water to drink.
Baby receiving immunisation
Carol: Far too many. Half of all the people who die in Laos are children under 5 years of age. One out of every ten babies born is dead before they have their first birthday.
Interviewer: Why do babies die so young?
Carol: Unlike Australia, nine out of every ten mothers in Laos have their babies at home, often without any trained assistance and sometimes completely alone. In so many cases this means that the birth of the baby is neither safe nor clean. Infections can set in very quickly. Mothers haven't been educated in how to look after their babies properly. Lack of nutritious food often means that the babies are underweight or malnourished and so susceptible to diseases. Only 30% of 1 year olds in the country are immunised.
Interviewer: Why don't their families in Laos see doctors and get medical help?
Carol: Families would see doctors and get medical help if they could. It is difficult in rural areas in Laos because of lack of transport to get to help. Also if people aren't educated, they don't see the signs of illness early enough. Medical assistance and medicines cost money which poor people don't have. Besides there is only one doctor for every 6,400 people in Laos, while in Australia there is one doctor for every 40 people.
Interviewer: What is being done to help these children and their mothers?
Carol: Australians have done a lot to help change this situation in one province (state) in Laos called Sayaboury Province. Through people's support of Save the Children Fund Australia and taxpayers money from the Australian Government, we have been able to establish a Primary Health Care Project which is not only saving the lives of children and other members of their family but helping all people to enjoy better health.
Solving the Problems
Through the Primary Health Care Project, Save the Children Fund Australia (SCFA) and the Australian Government have encouraged the local people to use their assistance to solve their problems for themselves. Save the Children Fund and the Australian Government have made it possible to ensure that the health of people across 364 villages in Sayaboury Province has improved dramatically since 1991.
The Primary Health Care project has:
- trained local volunteers in villages to provide daily health support;
- made access to medicines and medical treatment easier and more regular;
- provided essential buildings, equipment and training for health workers.
Using & Training Volunteers for the Benefit of All
- 457 volunteers have been trained in First Aid and health promoting activities. These volunteers are known as Village Health Volunteers (VHV). They are equipped with First Aid Kits containing Chloroquine, Oral Rehydration Therapy (ORT) salts, paracetemol and wound dressings.
Training Village Health Volunteers (VHVs) in basic data collection and analysis - 460 volunteers have been trained as Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs). They have been trained to provide safe, clean deliveries for mothers at childbirth. They are equipped with Safe Delivery Kits containing such easily replaceable items as razor blades for cutting the umbilical cord and short lengths of cotton for tying the cord. More than 80% of child birth deliveries are now assisted by TBAs.
Safe births and healthy babiesEasier Access to Medicines and Treatment
- 17 new dispensaries have been built and 20 other dispensaries have been renovated. These dispensaries are staffed by trained nurses who can immunise mothers and children, help mothers plan the number of children in their family and give intravenous therapy.
- Each dispensary serves a number of villages, any number between 4 - 23 villages. Remote dispensaries have been provided with equipment such as solar refrigerators, lighting systems and microscopes.
Making iodised salt at a village dispensary - Every 3 months, the dispensary staff visit their villages as a Mobile Outreach Clinic. During these visits they give immunisations, provide family planning advice, give check-ups to pregnant women and conduct classes and advice on how to prevent getting such illnesses as malaria and diarrhoea. More than 60% of children aged 1 year and under have now been fully immunised and almost 70% of women of child-bearing age are immunised against tetanus.
Village outreach activities - To ensure that medicines are available and affordable, the project has supplied the first monies to set up 'Revolving Drug Funds' for all dispensaries. This has allowed dispensaries to buy the necessary medicines. When villagers purchase their medicines from the dispensaries, they pay a small % above cost price. This keeps the fund going & enables very poor families to access medicines free-of-charge.
Buildings Equipment and Training
- Phiang District Hospital has been built enabling patients to have operations such as appendectomies, hernia repairs, caesarean section births.
Phiang District Hospital MCH/EPI section - District and Provincial Health Services Staff have received training in a diverse range of health areas
- Equipment such as X-Ray machinery, generator and surgical instruments have been provided to the Sayaboury Provincial Hospital as well as the development of a blood bank with blood borne virus testing.
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