UNICEF commends Ghana for reducing under-five mortality
UNICEF has commended Ghana for significantly reducing under-five mortality in recent times.
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It noted that for a 10-year period, out of every 1,000 children born alive in Ghana, 111 children died before their fifth birthday, but since 2011 the figure had dropped to 82 children dying before reaching five years.
“This has been a commendable achievement and we can be proud of this success,” it said, adding, however, that the reduction in under-five mortality did not reflect in the group of most vulnerable children, known as the newborns, who are aged from one to 28 days.
Madam Felicia Mahama, an official of UNICEF, said this at a Regional Executive Forum on Newborns in Wa.
Stopping under-five mortality
She said there was unfinished business in achieving the Millennium Development Goal 4 (MDG 4) target of reducing under -five mortality to 41 deaths per 1,000 live births.
She said mortality in the newborn age group had not changed during the last 10 years because among all children born alive this year in Ghana, close to 90 were dying each day before reaching the first month of their lives.
“Looking at the number of children born alive each year in Ghana, this means in real terms that every 60 minutes, four babies are dying — one newborn death every 15 minutes and the situation in the Upper West Region is not very much different from that of the other parts of Ghana,” she said.
That, she said, should not be allowed to continue and mentioned pre-term births, complications during childbirth and infections contracted during the newborn period as the three main causes of newborn deaths.
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Steps to be taken
Madam Mahama, however, said the good news was that 75 per cent of all those newborn deaths could be easily prevented or treated by simple and low-cost interventions that were all within “our reach”.
“We have evidence of the effectiveness of these interventions which, if correctly applied and in a timely manner, can effectively prevent at least 75 per cent of the deaths of our precious newborns,” she said.
She said all that Ghana needed was to act to avert any more deaths of newborn babies, explaining that Ghana could effectively save the lives of 24,000 newborn babies who were currently dying each year.
Madam Mahama said Ghana needed a skilled human resource, especially health personnel, equitably distributed to provide quality care for mothers during pregnancy, mothers and their newborns during childbirth and continued quality care for newborns during their first month of life.
Ghana, she said, also needed to provide all the necessary equipment and commodities and work with communities to break away from all the negative beliefs and harmful practices that were detrimental to the health and survival of the newborn.
“Ghana has to implement all these interventions quickly and scale up other interventions to be able to reverse this sad trend of newborn mortality,” she said.
Renewed commitment
Madam Mahama called for renewed commitments by stakeholders to avail the resources to every mother and her newborn, no matter where they resided, and also called on all to invest in the survival of newborns.
UNICEF, she said, felt honoured having been part of the development of Ghana’s National Newborn Strategy and Action Plan for 2014-2018, which she described as an important milestone to address the morbidity and mortality of newborn babies in Ghana.
UNICEF, she said, remained steadfast in the commitment to support the government and the Ghana Health Service in the region for the full implementation of the strategy.
Madam Mahama urged the Upper West Regional Coordinating Council to place newborn health on top of the political agenda of the region to help attain the MDG 4.
Credit: GNA