Nepal CRS Company is doing a pilot project on Possible Severe Bacterial Infection (PSBI) in collaboration with Save the Children International (SCI) in Kavre district. The project aims to make Private Medical Shops/ Service Provider adhere and follow the Nepal Government’s Integrated Management of Neonatal and Childhood Illness (IMNCI) protocol for the treatment of PSBI.

With technical support from Child Health Division (CHD) and District Health Office (DHO) - Kavre, CRS provided a 2 days training to 52 medical shops on the IMNCI treatment protocol of PSBI cases. The training equipped private medical shops with the knowledge on the identification of the case, and subsequent procedures to follow for the correct treatment of PSBI.

CRS’s major role in the project is to keep track of the number of young infants treated or referred to bigger health facilities who suffered from PSBI by these trained private medical outlets. CRS has recruited two Program Coordinators for this project based in Kavre district and they are closely monitoring the trained private medical shops. The monitoring would allow CRS to get the actual number of cured young infants, the treatment practice, referrals made, challenges and barriers faced.

The pilot project will run approximately for nine months ending in March 2019. The major output of the project would be to take this initiation as a model, to allow private medical shops for the treatment of PSBI at the local level following the IMNCI protocol which can be institutionalized, and further scale up work to support the government’s efforts to reduce young infant mortality.