Prevalence of Anaemia in Children Aged 6 to 59 Months at the Makiso - Kisangani General Referral Hospital from 2020 to 2022

Abstract

Anaemia is a public health problem with major consequences for health and in increasing the risk of infant mortality in its severe form. The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of anaemia in children aged between 6 and 59 months at the Makiso - Kisangani general referral hospital between 2020 and 2022. This was a descriptive cross-sectional study based on a literature review. We took an exhaustive sample of 215 patients who met the inclusion criteria during the study period. To compare our results with previous work, we used descriptive analysis. We observed a prevalence of anaemia of 20.7% in children aged 6 to 59 months, of whom 28.4% were aged 12 to 23 months, with a sex ratio of 1.6 in favour of males. Anaemia, sickle cell disease and malnutrition were the main antecedents, while pallor was the dominant clinical sign, followed by fever and tachycardia. Over 75% of cases were associated with malaria, followed by pneumonia in 26.4%. Severe anaemia accounted for more than half the cases. Management was based on artesunate (82.8%), iron supplementation (81.9%) and transfusion (52.1%). This resulted in 97.2% recovery and 2.8% death. Preventive measures and improved management must therefore be undertaken to combat the aetiologies involved and reduce mortality to below 1%.