Latest update February 24th, 2025 9:02 AM
CONCERNS ABOUT INFANT MORTALITY
It is often said that a society is judged on how it treats its most vulnerable–the elderly and infants. But with 119 neonatal deaths recorded at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) between June 2017 and June 2018, it is obvious that our society has not done a good job.
In this period, there were 6409 live births and 119 neonatal deaths at GPH. While GPH is the only public hospital in the country that is capable of providing neonatal care with invasive breathing support, the high infant mortality rate is worrying. The fact that there were 35 neonatal deaths in the first four months of the year is alarming, yet there are no investigations.
The Minister contends that the high rate of infant mortality is because the hospital receives the sickest infants. Even if it is the case, the question remains as to what is causing the sickness of the infants in the first place and what measures are taken by the Ministry of Public Health to solve with problem.
Today, Guyana continues to experience one of the highest infant death rates in Latin America and the Caribbean, despite some progress in the last two decades. Although the child death rate has fallen in the last few years, except for Haiti, no other country in the Caribbean had a maternal death rate higher than Guyana.
Grenada which has an economy that is about a third of Guyana’s economy has an infant death rate that was a fifth of Guyana.
Infant mortality should be of concern to everyone. It is one death too many for the country whose population hovers around three-quarters of a million people. In 2013, the Ministry of Health embarked on a new strategy called Health Vision 2020, which outlined the country’s priorities towards achieving the Millennium Development Goal of reducing the neonatal mortality rate of 29 deaths per 1,000 live births by 10 percent and the under-five mortality rate of 35 deaths per 1,000 live births to 20 deaths per 1,000 live births.
The 119 child death figure is low when the goal is taken into consideration. The figure of 29 deaths per 1,000 live births works out to 174 for the number of live births.
It is estimated that 32 out of every 1,000 babies died by their first birthday which is almost double the average for the Caribbean and Latin America. However, the under-five mortality rate of 35 deaths per 1,000 live births has declined consistently since 2000.
Neonatal mortality rate is the number of new-born babies who die within months of their birth,and the under-five mortality rate is the number of infants who die before reaching age five. While the decrease in the under-five mortality rate is encouraging, it has not yet reached the country’s target of 20 deaths per 1,000 live births as defined by Millennium Development Goal.
In the last decade, the most prominent known causes of death for children below the age of five years were prematurity, birth asphyxia, congenital anomalies, neonatal sepsis, malaria, pneumonia, among others. Respiratory disorders–problems with breathing–account for 31 percent of all child deaths between birth and twelve months.
At the core of these problems is insufficient public investment in healthcare, poor-quality healthcare services, poverty, low educational attainment among women, limited access to needed services and poor coordination of healthcare services.
Fortunately, there are simple steps the government can take to resolve these challenges and ensure the provision of sufficient, quality and affordable healthcare services to reduce child deaths.
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