5.5 million newborns die every year, WHO to increase focus on poor populations

Each year, 5.5 million newborns die before birth or within the first 28 days of life. Upto 3 million of these deaths can be prevented through quality care around birth and during sickness, WHO experts say.

Each year, 5.5 million newborns die before birth or within the first 28 days of life. It’s like losing the entire population of Finland.

Health officials administer polio vaccine to newborn babies at a government hospital in Agartala. Experts says basic quality care and treatment can help save upto three million babies without intensive care. (PTI File Photo)

Most newborn deaths result from three preventable and treatable causes — prematurity, complications around birth and severe infections. Three million babies can be saved without intensive care, mainly though quality care around birth and treating small and sick newborns, say experts in Colombo to attend World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Committee meeting from September 5-9.

Maternal and newborn deaths, emergency response to outbreaks like Zika virus, and neglected tropical diseases like kala-azar and leprosy that affect the poorest populations in most countries will take centre stage at the regional committee meeting, which will be attended by health ministers from 11 nations in the region, including India’s health and family welfare minister, JP Nadda.

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“There are evidence-based interventions — increasing deliveries in hospitals and clinics, trained health workers, immediate drying and delayed cord clamp, and skin-to-skin contact between the mother and baby — that can prevent mother and new born deaths, but the challenge is the delivery of these interventions. Taking good quality care to pregnant women, for example, can save 40% maternal deaths,” says Dr Neena Raina, coordinator, maternal, newborn and adolescent health, WHO SEARO.

While maternal and child mortality rates have improved dramatically over the last two decades, 2.9 million newborns die within the first four weeks of birth. Another 3.3 million are stillbirths, defined as dying in the womb in the three months of pregnancy.

Newborn deaths account for 44% of all under-five-years-old deaths worldwide, with a baby’s risk of death in the first four weeks of life being nearly 15 times greater than any other time of his or her life.

Half of all newborn deaths occur in five countries. India, with 26 million live births and 7.79 lakh newborn deaths, tops the list, followed by Nigeria, Pakistan, China, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

There is some progress, with fewer mothers dying at childbirth today than every before.

“In 1990, there were 2,10,000 maternal deaths, in 2015, there were 61,000. The south-east Asia region has registered a 69% decline in maternal death rates, which is well above the world’s average decline of 44%,” said Dr Raina.