May 20, 2010 Sharing Evidence on Marernal Ahealth in Pakistan- the PAIMAN Experience Was

PAIMAN Highlights May 24-29, 2010

USAID Team Visits PAIMAN Interventions District Mardan Ms Candice Patnumn, US Council General visited Community Midwifery School Mardan, Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa May 27. Dr. Sardar Ahmed, District Program Coordinator JSI-PAIMAN facilitated the visit. Ms. Patnumn was briefed on PAIMAN interventions in general and on District Mardan specific activities including community midwifery (CMW) training, health facility upgrading, health facility staff capacity building, supply of medical equipment and provision of ambulances. She held a brief feedback session with CMW students and toured the midwifery school dormitory being constructed by PAIMAN. She appreciated PAIMAN’s progress and achievements.

National Consultative Meetings on Injection Safety Injection safety is another area of PAIMAN assistance to the Ministry of Health. Therapeutic injections and their re-use have reached epidemic proportions in Pakistan. Approximately half of the average 4-5 injections each Pakistani receives are unnecessary and about the same proportion are prepared in unsatisfactory conditions. At a May 26 meeting national health communication experts identified strategies to approach health care providers and the public on the dangers of unnecessary and unhygienic injections. On May 28 to develop a multifaceted approach to reduce the use of therapeutic injections and the reuse of syringes a consultative workshop was held. The workshop was attended by Director General Health as Chief Guest and Health Minister Government of Pakistan as Guest of Honor. Both emphasized the need to address the issue. Dr. Nabeela Ali, Chief of Party JSI-PAIMAN thanked the Government for supporting PAIMAN’s efforts to strategize and develop guidelines to address injection safety. Ms. Miriam Lutz, USAID spoke on the role of USAID for assistance in injection safety. Dr. Arshad Altaf, Consultant gave an overview of injection safety in Pakistan; National Program Manager, EPI shared EPI injection safety achievements; Dr. Iqbal Hossein, JSI-Making Medical Injections (MMIS) Safer project spoke on building sustainability of injection safety through policy development. Ms. Susan De la Torre, MMIS Project Director spoke on the impact of interventions made by the MMIS project.

PAIMAN Outreach Interventions Among regular field activities with lady health workers (LHW), quality improvement teams, health facility staff, and district coordination meetings, Save the Children US organized a local event for maternal, newborn, and child health and family planning at Civil Hospital, Paniyala – District DI Khan. Religious person, Maulana Sarfraz spoke on mother and child’s health in the context of Islam. LHW volunteers presented role-plays on positive and negative behaviors for seeking maternal and child care. Free medical checkups of pregnant and lactating mothers were provided by a gynecologist to 750 women, and bednets were distributed.