The Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) strategy and associated clinical care guidelines were developed in the mid-1990s to reduce mortality from major diseases in children younger than 5 years. Countries have been encouraged to follow a structured process to adapt the IMCI guidelines to their own epidemiological, health-systems, and cultural contexts. The clinical guidelines have been designed to assist workers in first-level health facilities to systematically assess each sick child who presents for care, and assign a classifi cation that can be used to establish correct treatment and need for referral to a higher level facility or hospital.