Mother, child week to start from November 14

Importance of proper healthcare emphasised.

PESHAWAR:

Taking measures to prevent loss of lives lost during pregnancy and delivery take the spotlight during a special week starting from November 14 in Khyber-Pakthunkhwa (K-P). Each year, 432,000 children under five years of age and, 20,000 women die in labour.

Speakers at the launching ceremony of Mother Child Week, organised by the United Nations Children’s Fund’s health department on Saturday, spoke about the precarious state of mothers and children. Secretary of Health, Capt Munir Azam served as the event’s chief guest while Director General Health Services Dr Sharif Ahmad Khan, health and nutrition specialist Dr Abdul Jamil and Provincial Coordinator Lady Health Worker Programme Dr Ihsanullah Turabi among other were also present.

Around 100 per every 1,000 children do not make it to their fifth birthday, a majority die in their first year due to diarrhoea and pneumonia.

Ihsanullah said that mother and child week would be observed from November 14 to November 19 and aims to cover 12,123,787 members of the population which include 412,209 pregnant women and more than 1.8 million kinds under the age of five. He added that the week would focus on creating awareness in 24 districts and IDPs at the Jalozai, Benazir and Togh Sarai camps.

Azam emphasised on the discrepancy between investment and health department, adding that efforts are being made to vaccinate children not innoculated before.

Sharif stressed the need of increasing awareness with regards to the health of both mothers and children, urging efforts to enhance vaccination statuses and deworming children of two to five years. He added that Pakistan ranks eighth in the world for the number of children’s deaths under-five each year.

With the maternal mortality rate at 276 per 100,000 live births, the speakers stated that this contributed to high fertility rate, low skilled birth attendance, illiteracy and malnutrition. They added that low birth weights, malnutrition, respiratory infections, diarrhoea and anaemia are all major causes of high morbidity and mortality rates among young Pakistanis.

The importance of the health sector in boosting its internal technical capacity to plan and manage family planning and other reproductive health services was stressed.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 13^th, 2011.