Paediatric Days 2022 - VIRTUAL EDITION 

 

The final agenda for the MSF Paediatric Days 2022 is live.

Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates.

 

The main sessions are: 

 

  • Zero Separation and Family Centred Care on November 29, 2022

Today, mothers and newborns are routinely separated directly after birth if there is a need for specialised treatment and care. This happens despite continued evidence showing the significant positive effects of ensuring close contact between babies and their parents.  Keeping mothers and newborns together, even when the baby requires a neonatal admission, is a person-centred approach to care with several potential benefits, including the promotion of breast-feeding and immediate kangaroo care, which can reduce newborn illness and deaths.     

Under the umbrella of family-centred care, this session will introduce the concept of zero mother-baby separation and explore to what extent this concept is applied in MSF, the main barriers and challenges, and how can we overcome these by adapting the concept to fit the reality of MSF projects.  

 

  • Malaria: Prevention is Better than Cure on November 30, 2022

According to the latest world malaria report, there were 241 million cases of malaria of which 627,000 were fatal in 2020. In total, 95% of all cases and 96% of all deaths from malaria occur in the African region with children under 5 accounting for ~80% of all malaria deaths in the region.      

This session aims to underline that “Prevention is better than cure”, whilst acknowledging that implementation of prevention activities can be more challenging than providing well-known treatment options. Some activities we will consider are vector control, Intermittent preventive treatment in infancy/ childhood (IPTi/IPTc), Seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC), and the malaria vaccine. The session will steer discussion and debate around implementation challenges and focus our attention on effective and efficient implementation strategies that consider the contextual and seasonal variations seen across MSF project locations.  

 

  • Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) on December 1, 2022

Impoverished, marginalized, neglected populations are at particular risk of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) and children are disproportionally affected. Diagnosis and management are often challenging for this diverse group of diseases, but the drive for innovation is lacking and MSF has been on the forefront of advocacy to push for commitment.    

This session will take an operational view on the diagnosis and management of NTDs, and include discussion on paediatric formulations of various treatments, mass-drug administration, the continued need for advocacy, and the inextricable link between NTDs and achieving OneHealth (integrating the health of human, animal, environment, and natural systems).