Abstract

The authorities in Chad have always been aware of the importance of good health policy. In this context they defined the following priorities: preventive medicine to be preferred to curative medicine; collective medicine to be preferred to individual medicine; and the rural environment to be given priority over the urban. In order to meet these priorities, the Ministère de santé publique plans, with the assistance of IDRC, to put in place an information and documentation system on public health through the structures of a Centre national de documentation en santé publique (CNDSP), and, at a later date, through a national network. Information will be disseminated in the form of quality documentary products such as a national bibliography, computerized data bases and list of institutions. Given Chad's central Africa location, regional cooperation will be one of the principal elements in the project.

Post-Project Summary

The National Documentation Centre on Public Health (CNDSP) was set up within the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, Chad. The Centre is directed by a documentalist with a master's degree. The director hired two assistants and provided them with basic training in documentation. In July 1991, the collection numbered 2 570 documents and 36 periodicals obtained through purchase, exchange or donation. The following documentary tools and products were produced and made available to users: a bibliographic bulletin (three issues); the Chad health bulletin (three issues); 50 documentary files; and one bibliographic database containing 1 124 records and 63 in process.

The Centre clientele range from the Ministry of Health to students from the Faculty of Health Sciences, and includes researchers and health specialists, and medical and para-medical personnel working at N'Djamena. The Centre receives an average of 15-20 visitors per day. The collections of the health prefecture documentation centres at Sarh and Moundou are more modest (about 200 each) and the clientele fewer and less varied. The Sarh documentation centre for example has about 50 subscribers and receives an average of 18 visitors per week, mainly nurses and teachers.

The director of CNDSP attended a training session in CDS-ISIS at the RESADOC coordinating centre and a training seminar at the Organization for Coordination and Cooperation in the Control of Major Endemic Diseases (OCCGE), Bobo-Dioulasso, and the VIth Congress of Medical Librarians in New Delhi. Work continued in a second phase (91-0180).

Recipient Institution(s)