Department of Pediatrics, Driscoll Children's Hospital, Texas, USA.
Ann Afr Med. 2023 Jul-Sep;22(3):399-401. doi: 10.4103/aam.aam_115_22.
Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest burden of childhood and adolescent mortality in the world. The leading causes of mortality in pediatric populations in Africa include preterm birth complications, pneumonia, malaria, diarrheal diseases, HIV/AIDS, and road injuries. These causes of childhood and adolescent mortality often lead to emergency room utilization due to critical presentation, placing emphasis on the importance of pediatric emergency services in Africa. Despite the criticality of pediatric emergency medicine (PEM) in the region, there is a paucity of PEM training programs in Africa. Ongoing interventions focused on addressing the poor access to PEM training and services include isolated efforts to provide PEM-specific training to nonemergency medicine (EM)-trained practitioners and expand current EM training to include PEM piloted in a single center in Kenya. Sustainable efforts require organized efforts with government and graduate medical education bodies. We discuss the existing infrastructure that can be utilized in promoting the establishment of PEM training programs and urge local governments' investment as well as other stakeholders, including graduate medical education, to address the issue of childhood mortality in Africa through the improved provision and access to PEM training.
撒哈拉以南非洲地区是全球儿童和青少年死亡率最高的地区。非洲儿科人群的主要死亡原因包括早产并发症、肺炎、疟疾、腹泻病、艾滋病毒/艾滋病和道路伤害。这些导致儿童和青少年死亡的原因往往因危急情况而导致需要到急诊室就诊，这凸显了非洲儿科急诊服务的重要性。尽管该地区的儿科急诊医学（PEM）至关重要，但非洲的 PEM 培训计划却很少。目前正在进行的干预措施侧重于解决 PEM 培训和服务获取不足的问题，包括向非急诊医学（EM）培训医生提供专门的 PEM 培训的孤立努力，以及扩大现有的 EM 培训，包括在肯尼亚的一个中心试点 PEM。可持续的努力需要政府和研究生医学教育机构的有组织的努力。我们讨论了可以利用的现有基础设施，以促进 PEM 培训计划的建立，并敦促地方政府投资以及包括研究生医学教育在内的其他利益攸关方，通过改善提供和获取 PEM 培训来解决非洲儿童死亡问题。
