Latest update November 5th, 2024 1:00 AM
Maternal and child health seminar gets underway
A two-day seminar on maternal and child health expanded programme on immunisation commenced yesterday at the Regency Suites Hotel by the Ministry of Health. The forum is mainly aimed at reviewing the work that was done during the year and to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the programme.
Maternal Child Health Director, Dr. Janice Woolford, said that during the course of the two days, the participants who are attending from the ten regions in Guyana will look at ways in which they can improve the programme and update their knowledge on other programmes that are expected to come on stream next year.
At the opening session of the seminar, Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) representative, Dr. Kathleen Israel, commended the health workers for their hard work. She urged them to work towards achieving the millennium development goals (MDG’s), which speak about the reduction in maternal mortality and the reduction in child mortality.
“Child health is your business, safe motherhood is your business and adolescent health is your business,” Dr. Israel said.
She also called on foreign partners to assist the Government of Guyana to achieve its health objectives.
Meanwhile, it was also noted that a recent evaluation has shown that the Ministry of Health has been able to reach more than 90 percent of immunisation coverage in Guyana.
Minister of Health, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, said that it is a remarkable achievement for Guyana, in being able to reach more than 90 percent of the population.
However, he noted that the Ministry still has to ensure that no child is left behind and thus, new strategies have to be found to identify the child that is left out.
“It cannot be the sole responsibility of the health sector and of the health care workers. This has to be a national obligation. It must be all of us working together… the NGO’s, the churches, the teachers…We all have an equal obligation to ensure that every child gets covered, that every young woman gets access to reproductive health care, that every pregnant woman receives anti natal care, that every woman gives birth in a setting where there is a trained personnel, that every new born child receives the services that would ensure in the first instance that he/she survives the new natal period and then he she survives the infancy period,” Minister Ramsammy said.
He, however, urged persons not to fall in a false sense of security, because in spite of the high level of vaccination of the children, Guyana receives visitors from countries where the coverage to protect against whooping cough and other infections are not as high, thus leaving Guyana vulnerable.
Minister Ramsammy stated that the MDGs will be impossible to achieve unless the Ministry tackles the vaccine preventable diseases.
He added that since 1978, they have been able to prevent approximately 10 million deaths of children under five years because of the use of vaccines.
Dr. Ramsammy revealed that some three million children under five years die every year because they were not vaccinated.
He explained that the nutrition programme needs to be improved in Guyana, since there are some children who are malnourished and have low birth weight.
“We need the specific answer to what causes these things so that we could introduce specific strategies and specific interventions at a family level and eliminate low birth rate and malnutrition and under nutrition in our children.”
Meanwhile, the Health Minister also expressed his disappointment that despite the pleas by the Ministry, exclusive breast feeding is still not any closer to reaching the 100 percent target of the Ministry of Health.
In this regard, he called on religious leaders to urge mothers to do exclusive breast feeding.
“If those children do not survive their under-five period, then there ain’t no soul to be saved. And we are saving the souls of mothers and fathers and grandparents, just to make them unhappy because their children are sick and dying. Get out there and preach the message, get out there and let people know that it is a blessed thing to breast feed your baby and have them immunized,” Minister Ramsammy said.
Some of the participants at the seminar.
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