About IMNCI.

Integrated Management of Childhood illness (IMNCI) is a systematic approach to children's health which focuses on the whole child. This means focusing not only on curative care but also on prevention of disease. The approach was developed by United Nations Children's Fund and the World Health Organization in 1995.

It includes both preventive components on the part of families and communities, as well as curative actions to be taken by health workers. It also has an objective to help improve health systems.

Although the annual number of deaths among children less than five years old has decreased by almost a third since the 1970s, this reduction has not been evenly distributed throughout the world. According to the 1999 World Health Report, children in low-to-middle income countries are 10 times more likely to die before reaching age five than children living in the industrialized world. In 1998, more than 50 countries still had childhood mortality rates of over 100 per 1,000 live births.