UNICEF affirms commitment to fight newborn

 

THE United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Tanzania has expressed its commitment that it will continue to support the government’s endeavours in reducing the newborn mortality rate.

UNICEF Country Representative Maniza Zaman said yesterday in a statement that the government has made significant progress in fighting deaths for children below five years. However, the UNICEF boss said still there were some challenges that need to be resolved. “We all need to commit to giving every child a fair chance at the start of life. It’s both the right and the smart thing to do,” said.
In a statement released yesterday by UNICEF, some 270 children under-five die every day in Tanzania, most from preventable causes such as malaria, pneumonia, and diarrhoea. It further shows that about 6 in 10 deaths occur in the first year of life, while 4 in 10 deaths occur in the first month of life. “We can save these lives with simple and affordable, quality health services that need to reach and be accessed by every mother and her newborn, across the country,” said Mr Zaman.
According to the report, Tanzania experiences high number of newborn deaths in the world, approximately 39,000 die annually, 17,000 of them in their first day of life. An additional 47,550 babies are stillborn and some 8,000 mothers die every year during childbirth.
Globally, in low-income countries, the average newborn mortality rate is 27 deaths per 1,000 births, the report says. In high-income countries, that rate is 3 deaths per 1,000 births. In Tanzania, the newborn mortality rate stands at 25 deaths per 1,000 births according to Tanzania Demographic and Health Survey (TDHS 2015-16). If every country brought its newborn mortality rate down to the high-income country average by 2030, 16 million lives could be saved.
More than 80 per cent of newborn deaths are due to prematurity, complications during birth or infections such as pneumonia and sepsis, the report says. According to UNICEF, the deaths can be prevented with access to well-trained midwives, along with proven solutions like clean water, disinfectants, breastfeeding within the first hour, skin-toskin contact and good nutrition.
However, a shortage of well-trained health workers and midwives means that thousands don’t receive the life-saving support they need to survive.