Counting beads
Community Health Workers (CHW) play a vital role in providing healthcare to people in the rural areas. It is inventions like the counting beads that help them diagnose children with pneumonia.
Pneumonia is said to be the leading cause of child death the world over and this low-cost method can save millions of children so they can get urgent medical attention.
The counting beads is used to monitor the child’s breathing pattern. A bead is moved for every breath a child takes in a minute.
It is when a child takes one too many breaths in a minute that the CHW or the other realises the child might need medical attention.
The beads are easy to make and the materials to make them are not costly.
