Cardinal Symptoms List for Child & Neonatal Deaths
|
1. FEVER
|
|
- High or low grade
- Longer than 30 days
- Continuous, intermittent (on and off), or occasional
- Did the fever rise every day
- Low body temperature
- Associated with: headache; burning sensation while passing urine; neck stiffness; irritated and does not like light or sound; confusion; drowsiness; coma; rash/blisters
|
|
|
|
|
|
2. BREATHING PROBLEMS
|
|
- What brings it on (for example, allergy or chest infection)
- Progression: did the person feel breathlessness only during exertion? Did it progressively worsen so that breathlessness occurred also at rest?
- Is breathlessness worse after lying flat, and relieved by sitting up?
- Was breathlessness continuous or in episodes/attacks
- Associated with: night sweats; evening rise of temperature; vomiting; hoarseness of voice
|
|
|
|
|
|
3. COUGH
|
|
- Dry, wet (with sputum), bloody (rusty), or foul smelling
- Longer than 30 days
- Worse during day or night
- With wheezing or in-drawing of chest (use local language)?
- Any pain during cough or deep breath
- Any pain at the sides of the chest wall
- Associated with: night sweats; evening rise of temperature; vomiting; hoarse voice
|
|
|
|
|
|
4. DIARRHOEA/DYSENTERY IN STOOLS
|
|
- Stools liquid or semisolid
- Did stools contain mucus, or look like rice water?
- Longer than 30 days
- Painless or painful
- Large quantity or not
- Blood in the stool, red or black in colour
- How many times a day at worst?
- Associated with: vomiting; very thirsty; dehydration sunken eyes; reduced urine amount. Note: mothers of breastfed infants tend to report children with soft/loose stools, so it is important to ask if soft and loose stools were MORE FREQUENT than usual
|
|
|
|
|
|
5. JAUNDICE
|
|
- What become yellow: eyes or skin; was urine dark yellow/brown?
- Onset: yellowness came first followed by other illness OR illness came first followed by yellowness
- Associated with: fast breathing; excessive crying; chest in-drawing; vomiting blood
|
|
|
|
|
|
6. SEIZURES/ FITS
|
|
- Previous episodes of sudden jerky movements of arms or legs
- Loss of consciousness
- Awake between fits or not
- Associated with: rolling of eye balls; frothing of mouth; loss of memory; bit tongue; bed wetting; confused; history of head injury
|
|
|
|
|
|
7. DISCOLORATION OF LIPS, HAND AND LEGS
|
|
- Bleeding into eyes and skin
- Location: lips, hands, or legs
- Was discoloration blue or red?
- Associated with: bulging fontanel or drowsiness, scalp injuries, spasm of body
|
|
|
|
|
|
8. WEIGHT LOSS
|
|
- Loss of weight rapid in last 2-3 months
- Associated with prolonged fever for more than 1 month (either constant or continuous)
- Diarrhoea for more than 1 month
- Persistent cough for more than 1 month
- Swelling in arm pits, neck, groin
- Itching and skin rash
- White sores or white patches in mouth
- History of tuberculosis or HIV/AIDS
|
|
|
|
|
|
9. OEDEMA/SWELLING
|
|
- Location: hands, feet, abdomen, or elsewhere
- Onset: sudden or gradual
- Worse at night or morning
- Associated with: worse with walking; fatigue; feeling heart beat faster; nausea; appetite loss
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|