Child health services coverage in rural districts of Pakistan with the health services extension program

Aim: to explore whether introduction of hsep has improved the coverage of child health services in the rural areas of district multan. methods: a cross sectional study was conducted in three randomly selected rural areas of district multan,southwest pakistan. the data collection was undertaken during the months of may,june and july of 2009. a structured questionnaire was used to interview female heads of sampled households. data were collected on the socio-demographic characteristics,use of health posts. results: only 64% of the rural areas of district multan had functional health posts although another 32% of the rural areas of district multan had health posts under construction. however,most (93.7%) of the rural areas of district multan already had two health extension workers (hews) assigned. vaccination coverage as measured by dpt3 was 67.9%,and 10% of the under-two year old children included in this survey had diarrhoea during the past two weeks. of the 34(51.5%) mothers who sought help during diarrhoeal attacks,12(35.3%) of them went to the health post. the first places of treatment seeking were health centres and health posts with equal proportion for both (43.5%). treatment was sought within a day or two after commencement of diarrhoea for 70.6% of the children. conclusions: in addition to continuing efforts to improve coverage,there is a need to ensure that activities are linked with follow up of vaccination,early treatment seeking and proper home management of diarrhoea.