Govt commits to reducing maternal, infant mortality

Nov 27, 2013

The ministry of health is to intensify the supply of kits and other medical equipment to improve health access under a new plan to reduce maternal and infant mortality.

By JOHN AGABA

The ministry of health is to intensify the supply of kits and other medical equipment to improve health access under a new plan to reduce maternal and infant mortality.


Under the plan, launched in Kampala on Tues day, the ministry will also consider intensifying interventions in areas earmarked as with the highest numbers of child and maternal deaths.

It is expected that an additional 120, 000 children and 6,100 women will be saved by 2017 under the plan.

In Uganda, about 90 children per 1, 000 live births die when they are not yet five years old. And over 16 women die every day in pregnancy-related complications.
true
Officials and other participants at the launch of the campaign in Kampala. PHOTO/Mathias Mugisha

Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng, director general in the health ministry, said by implementing the interventions called for in the plan, they hope that under-five mortality rate will fall from 90 deaths per 1, 000 live births in 2011 to 53 deaths per 1, 000 live births in 2017.

Maternal mortality rate will also fall from 438 deaths per 100, 000 live births in 2011 to 211 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2017.

This is preventing an additional 40% of under-five deaths and 26% of maternal deaths by 2017.

She said the plan envisioned five strategic shifts which will go to averting maternal and child mortality in the country.

“Geographically, we shall focus on areas with the highest number of child and maternal deaths. We shall increase access to of health services to deprived and vulnerable populations,” she said.

Aceng said that they will also root for interventions that target the direct causes of maternal and child death and address broader educational and economic issues like empowerment of the woman.

“We shall target accountability. All districts will have routine health management teams and score cuts. All the district maternal, neonatal and child health initiatives have a mandate to increase accountability. We shall strengthen the links between the district health teams and the communities to reduce maternal mortality.”

Launching the plan, the Vice President, Edward Kiwanuka Ssekandi, said: “This sharpened plan is a critical step forward in Uganda’s efforts to eliminate preventable child and maternal deaths.”

The plan is expected to cost about $682million (about sh1.7 trillion) over the next four years.

Aceng said the ministry was already engaged in a number of interventions to avert maternal and child mortality.

Such interventions include the maternal death audit which seeks to document the details a mother died to prevent deaths of related nature. There is also the voucher scheme where mothers in south western Uganda are given vouchers so they can access care when they need it. There is the Saving Mothers Initiative, and the Giving a Life Initiative in Karamoja.

“These strategic shifts represent a new way of doing business in Uganda’s health sector,” said health minister Ruhakana Rugunda. “With the potential of saving the lives of an additional 120, 000 children and 6,100 women by 2017, over and above those who would have been saved on the current path, all health partners across Uganda must now work together in earnest to adopt and implement them.”

“Maternal mortality has been declining unfortunately at a low rate,” said Rugunda.

The UN Resident Coordinator, Ahunna Eziakonwa-Onochie commended Uganda’s efforts in improving maternal and child health.

But with less than 1, 000 days to the millennium development goals deadline in 2015, she called on every stakeholder in child and maternal health issues to work harder to reduce these “preventable deaths.”

Health ministry’s permanent secretary, Asuman Lukwago, said maternal and child mortality was like an epidemic and it needed concerted efforts to fight it. 

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});