Treatment of Anemia in Infants

Objective: To evaluate anemia among 9 month old infants. Setting: Isa town health center. Design: Retrospective. Method: Screening booklets of infants were reviewed; personal data and hemoglobin were recorded for each patient from 16/7/2004 to 16/10/2004. Another group of booklets were reviewed from 1/3/2005 to 31/5/2005 to evaluate the improvement in treatment after intervention. Result: The number of infants reviewed in the first group was 405, 296 attended the health center. Hundred and fortyseven infants (49.6%) had Hb of less than 11 g/dl and of these infants only 91 (61.9%) were given treatment. In the second group, the number of infants who were reviewed for the nine months screening was 271, of those only 217 attended and all had their Hb measured. Hundred and forty two (65.5%) infants had Hb less than 11 g/dl and of those 133 (93.6%) infants were given treatment. Conclusion: More infants received treatment in second group compared to group one. This reflected the improvement of treatment of infants of low Hb.