Prevention and control of anaemia among school children north batinah region

A study of anaemia among school children in north Batinah region has revealed that the prevalence of anaemia is 27.3%. The children included in the study represent 98.4% from the total children in standard I from primary schools, and 99.2% from those in Form I in secondary schools. The study has shown a great reduction in anaemia following the introduction of therapeutic treatment which consisted of 5 tablets of ferrous sulphate per week for eight weeks. By the end of 8 weeks, the prevalence of anaemia had declined from 27.8% to 8.6%

Factors contributing to elimination of neonatal tetanus in North Batinah region

A study to assess the level of protection of newborn babies against tetanus neonatarum and to examine all the factors that contributed to the elimination of the disease has been conducted in North Batinah region during the month of August 1996. All health institutions located in all wilayats in the region had participated in the study. The number of new born babies included in the study was 3440 and had been selected at random. The result of the study has shown that 99.6% of the children were immune and protected against the disease. The study revealed that the rate of vaccinated mothers with 5 doses was 74.6% and for those with 4 doses was 87.4%. As for those with 3 doses and 2 doses, the rates were 95.5% and 99.6% respectively. The study indicates that 94.1% of deliveries are safe and mainly conducted in hospitals. The combination of high rate of maternal immunisation and high rate of safe deliveries has led us to say that the children in the region are safe and well protected against neonatal tetanus. This also confirms the fact that no cases of the disease have been reported since the year 1988 and neonatal tetanus has been eliminated completely from the region

Calculation of infant mortality rate in the sultanate of Oman

Infant mortality rate [IMR], despite its unique importance, is always estimated. The estimation of IMR of 23 per 1,000 live births in the Sultanate of Oman seems to be high. This rate has been estimated from the child health surveys, 1988. With the rapid growth of health services, the health status of Omanis have improved. Thus the estimation of IMR in the Sultanate on past surveys cannot provide the real value of IMR. It has been shown in this paper how to calculate the actual lMR. Our computation of IMR gives the value of 13.0 per 1,000 live birth in the north Batinah region for the year 1993, and 12.8 for 1994