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Rising maternal deaths worry Health ministry

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THE Ministry of Health and Child Care has expressed concern at the increasing cases of maternal deaths being recorded in the country,

THE Ministry of Health and Child Care has expressed concern at the increasing cases of maternal deaths being recorded in the country, saying urgent action is needed to reverse the trend.

By Feluna Nleya Staff Reporter

The latest weekly reports on epidemic-prone diseases, deaths and public events from the ministry show that maternal deaths were increasing with a cumulative figure of 85 since the beginning of the year.

The director of Epidemiology and Disease Control in the ministry, Portia Manangazira, said government had to intervene to reduce the number of deaths.

“We need to see that hospitals are fully equipped with all the necessary items to be used and to have specialists at the hospitals, but it is a process,” she said.

“We still see quite a lot of mothers dying weekly and that is a huge tragedy.

“After the deaths we have instructed all districts to do an audit of the deaths, to see what was not done which needed to be done.”

Manangazira said there was need to work with the communities as most delays start at home right up to the health centres.

“We still want communities to assist us so as to avoid these deaths,” she said.

“We talk about three delays which is the decision for a health care facility, how to get to the health care facility and at the health care centre is there blood if the patient needs blood, if there are doctors and if all the equipment is there. It is good that the cases are being reported, but this is only a tip of the iceberg and this shows that a lot more is happening, some cases go unreported.”

According to the World Health Organisation, maternal mortality is the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and site of the pregnancy, from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management, but not from accidental or incidental causes.

In the 1980s the country had a low maternal mortality rate of 90 per 100 000 live births. In 1994, it was 253 per 100 000 live births.

Statistics from the Ministry of Health and Child Care show that maternal deaths in the country increased from 555 in 2005 to 725 per every 100 000 births in 2009.

According to the 2012 National Census Report, the maternal mortality ratio in 2012 was 525 per 100 000 live births.