High mortality rate continues
Statistics from the weekly bulletin from the Epidemiology Department (DIGEPI) of the Ministry of Public Health show that 793 babies have died in the first three months of this year compared to 601 over the same period last year that is an increase of 31.9%.
In the maternity hospital, San Lorenzo de Los Mina, of the 796 registered births up to 31 March this year, 22% died before reaching one month.
The Ministry of Health announced a program to reduce infant and maternal deaths 12 years ago, but so far it has had no success. Teenage pregnancies, absence of prenatal checks and hundreds of births to Haitian woman who come to the hospitals to give birth directly from Haiti have been cited as the reasons for the high infant mortality rate in the country. According to the director of Los Mina hospital, Paulino Díaz Ozoria, the rate of infant mortality in the first quarter of the year was 22.8% for Haitian babies and 26.3% of babies whose mothers were teenagers.
Director of the Maternal-Infants and Adolescents Program at the Ministry of Public Health, Juan Carlos De Jesús, said that they are working on a new plan of action which would shortly be announced. De Jesus declined to give details of the new strategy to combat infant mortality.
In addition, the director of the Presidente Estrella Ureña Hospital in Santiago, Francisco Hernández, and the president of the Dominican Medical College (CMD), Wilson Roa, attribute the high rate of infant deaths to several factors include premature births and the precarious situation in many hospitals, attributed to crumbling facilities, the lack of equipment and supplies as well as a shortage of medical personnel.
Most of the deaths of premature infants are caused by respiratory problems and septicemia.
Last year, 2017 there were 2,932 infant deaths of which 78% (2,280) occurred within the first month of life, with the majority being from 0 to 6 days old.
Source: DR1, DiarioLibre
April 19, 2018
Category: DR News |