9.6  Registration and referral of cases with acute malnutrition

In Targeted Supplementary Feeding (TSF) woredas where screening for acute malnutrition is integrated with EOS/CHD, the results of your screening are used to identify the people who will get the targeted supplementary foods. Therefore you will be provided with a registration book for you to register all children with malnutrition. Children with either severe acute malnutrition or moderate acute malnutrition are eligible for targeted supplementary feeding and should have their name entered in the registration book.

When you write in the registration book, the information will automatically be carbon copied onto three additional coloured sheets. When you look at a registration book you will see four different coloured sheets. After writing your entries you should send each sheet to different stakeholders, as described below.

  • The white coloured sheet remains with the registration book for your records
  • The light blue sheet is sent to the woreda food security desk
  • The pink sheet is given to the woreda health office
  • The yellow sheet is sent to the regional Disaster Risk Management and Food Security Sector (DRMFSS) office.

You should keep the white sheet and submit the other three to your supervisor. He or she will make sure they are sent to the correct recipients. In some woredas, the Food Distribution Agents may take the light blue sheet. Food Distribution Agents are women that are selected from the community to manage the storage and distribution of targeted supplementary foods. They will only give TSF foods for the women and children who are on your list.

You must give a ration card to people with severe acute malnutrition and moderate acute malnutrition. Families will keep these cards to show to the Food Distribution Agent (FDA), so you must make sure that the ration card is not given to someone who is not eligible.

All children and adults with severe acute malnutrition should be treated. If your health post has an Out-patient Therapeutic Programme (OTP) where you can manage cases with severe acute malnutrition, provide the first day treatment and make an appointment for a subsequent follow-up visit.

Study Session 10 looks at how to treat cases with severe acute malnutrition in your health post. For now, you just need to know that if your health post is not yet able to treat cases of severe acute malnutrition, you should refer the child to a nearby health facility where they can access treatment for the appropriate services.

9.5.2  Crowd control

9.7  Reporting