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PREVENTIVE MEASURES IN COMMON CHILDHOOD DISEASES

N.R. Bhandari

Gandhi Medical College, Bhopal, India

Prevention is better than cure. Many of the common childhood illness can be prevented by appropriate measures.

Vaccine preventable disease like Tuberculosis, polio, Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertusis, Measles, Mumps, Rubella, Hepatitis B & A, Chicken pox & Typhoid can be prevented by timely vaccination (V.P.D) for Tuberculosis keeping the child way from open case, chemoprophylaxis & proper nutrition would be helpful. Clean drinking water & food bygiene are additional measures for prevention of typhoid, & diarrhoea.

Malnutrition can be prevented by exclusive breast feeding for 4 to 6 months. Addition of weaning foods, milk supplementation &immunization are useful measures. Deficiency diseases like Anaemia and Rickets can be prevented by providing adequate iron and fat containing diets from 4 months onwards & supplementation of iron and Vit D.

For prevention of diarrhoea, safe & clean water proper sanitation, health education, fly control & immunization are helpful measures. For prevention of dehydration ORS must be used. For preventing ARI, control over, environmental pollution & early treatment are needed. To prevent Malaria, eradication of mosquitos, elimination of water collection ponds, use of mosquite nets, spraying oil & chemoprophylaxis are required.

Specific measures would be more effective for prevention of illness if child is healthy, gets adequate nutrition, clean water & full immunization against all vaccine preventable disease.