Pushing Newborn Deaths and Stillbirths Up Global Health Agenda

By Jim LobeWASHINGTON , May 20 2014 (IPS) Delegates to this week’s annual meeting of the World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva should agree on an ambitious agenda to sharply cut the rate of newborn deaths and stillbirths over the next two decades, according to maternal and infant health experts. Reducing the rates of newborn deaths and stillbirths has lagged significantly behind the remarkable progress achieved in cutting mortality among children between the ages of one month and five years, according to a new study in the “Every Newborn” Series published by the British medical publication, ‘The Lancet”. Thanks in major part to the U.N.’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), reductions in mortality for children 1-59 months and maternal mortality have averaged 3.4 percent and 2.6 percent annually, respectively, in recent years. By contrast, the neo-natal mortality and stillbirth rates fell by only two percent and around one percent per year, respectively. Breast milk is vital for a premature newborn weighing barely 500 grams. Credit: Manipadma Jena/IPS That lag has been caused above all by “disappointing levels of investment in newborn health,” according to the study, which drew on the work of more than 55 experts from 29 institutions in 18 countries. “So far, investment targeted to newborn health has been miniscule,” noted Joy Lawn of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, who led the research on which the study is based along with Zulfiqar ...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - Category: Global & Universal Authors: Tags: Development & Aid Featured Headlines Health Population Poverty & MDGs Regional Categories TerraViva United Nations World Aga Khan University London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Maternal and Child Health Newborns Stillbir Source Type: news