Background
Every year, about 2.5 million children die in the first month of life, with 98% of these deaths occurring in developing countries. In 2017, 47% of all under-5 child deaths were among newborn infants. Neonatal infections, including sepsis and meningitis, were estimated to cause over 350 000 deaths each year, with 150 000 attributed to pneumonia. The vast majority of newborn deaths takes place in low and middle-income countries. Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) strategy, introduced in 1995, is still one of the cornerstones to addressing the child preventable mortality.
Chart booklet
The last update was in the IMCI chart booklet in 2014, but since then there have been significant updates on the management of sick young infant (SYI) aged up to 2 months. This 2019 update of the sick young infant section Management of the sick young infant age up to 2 months: IMCI chart booklet. supersedes the 2014 IMCI chart booklet. The new updates reflect the recent guidelines on Managing possible serious bacterial infection (PSBI) in young infants when referral is not feasible published in 2015. It includes assessment, classification and referral of SYI with PSBI; and outpatient treatment of SYI with local infection or fast breathing (pneumonia) in infants 7-59 days old. Other updates include: a new section on how to reassess, classify and treat SYI with PSBI when referral is not feasible in outpatient health facilities by IMNCI trained health workers; changes in assessment and management of young infants for HIV infection; and identification of infants less than 7 days of who need Kangaroo Care. In addition, the IMCI training course for health workers has been updated to reflect these updates to support the capacity building of health workers in using the updated SYI IMNCI chart booklet. The updated participant manual, facilitator guide and videos are available on this website and are linked below