Common Ailments at Presentation and outcome of the Management of Under-Five Children at A private Hospital in Imo State South East Nigeria

Introduction: Infections and communicable diseases have remained top causes of childhood morbidity and mortality in Africa. It is a great concern that despite the preventable nature of the causes of childhood deaths in Africa, childhood mortality rate is still high in our sub-region. Under-five (U-5) illnesses like Diarrhoea, Malaria, Pneumonia, Acute respiratory illness are still high in Nigeria and the leading causes of morbidity and mortality. Objective: To ascertain the common ailments at presentation and outcome of management among under-fives at St. Mary’s Joint Hospital Amaigbo, Nwangele L.G.A., Imo State that can improve management of the under five cases and ensure efficient allocation of scarce resources. Methodology: Across-sectional retrospective study design was used through the review of medical records/proforma of the Paedratric Unit of St Mary’s Joint Hospital, Amaigbo, Orlu over a period of five years dated 1st January 2018 to 31st December 2022. The study population comprised all children aged 0 to 59 months that were admitted into the paediatric wards of the Hospital. The age, gender, disease presentation, diagnoses, month of admission and management outcome of these patients, were all retrieved from the paediatric ward registers and hospital medical records. The demographic characteristics of these patients and associations with outcome variables were then analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences and results presented in frequency tables. Result: Out of 404 under-five patients admitted, a little over half, 228(56.4%) were males and113(28.09%) of the respondents were within age group2-11 months. Among the common symptoms presented were fever, 302(74.8%) and majority of the respondents were diagnosed malaria,271(67.1), septicemia, 137(33.9%), acute respiratory infections, 85(21.0%), anaemia 72(17.8%) and diarrheal diseases,66(16.3%). We found that most, 341 (84.4%), of the respondents were discharged home after successful treatment. Conclusion: Our study showed that the peak age for presenting with childhood illnesses was 2 -11 months of age and male to female ratio was about 1.3;1. Most of the admitted patients were discharged home after successful management, with a few referred and others opted for discharge against medical advice while a few died. Recommendation 1. Measures to curtail malaria fever such as free distribution of insecticide treated bed nets to families in Amaigbo community and environmental sanitation to reduce the breeding of anopheles mosquitoes. 2. The pediatric emergency unit should be fully established within the hospital to enable the medical experts arrest any life-threatening conditions as quickly as possible.