NEHK under revision

The original New Emergency Health Kit (NEHK) was last updated in 1998 and is currently under revision. The kit substituting the NEHK is called Interagency Emergency Health Kit (IEHK).

The interagency group includes ICRC, IFRC, IOM, MSF, Save the Children(UK), UNFPA, UNHCR, UNICEF and an input from others, including WHO departments.

This updated version of the kit is at an advanced stage of development, and the interagency group has agreed upon a number of major changes to the organisation and content of the kit, while the basic structure remains the same with 10 basic units and a single supplementary unit for use by well trained healthcare workers.

All kits will be provided, on a standard basis as the default position, with medicines for malaria and for the prospective treatment of rape victims. 

Only at the specific request of the purchaser will a kit be provided without provision for malaria or the "module" specifically intended for areas with a particularly high prevalence of sexual violence.

The major revision of the kit contents includes provision of artemether + lumefantrine (tab), artemether (inj) and diagnostic kits for the rapid diagnosis of malaria, the addition of atenolol, ceftriaxone, cloxacillin, ibuprofen, magnesium sulfate with calcium gluconate, the substitution of albendazole for mebendazole, miconazole and clotrimazole for nystatin, and the adjustment of quantities of a number of medicines and minor equipment changes.

Acetylsalicylic acid, chloramphenical, chloroquine and sulfadoxine + pyrimethamine have been dropped.

While chloroquine is now ineffective in many malarial areas and has been superseded by more effective medicines, it has not actually been banned anywhere.

(Announcement from e-drug, January 2005)