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Guyana makes significant strides in reduction of maternal/infant deaths – PAHO report
Kaieteur News – Since 2014, the country’s health sector has been making significant strides in reducing maternal/ infant deaths.
According to a Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) report seen by this newspaper, in 2014, while Guyana was known as the country in the Caribbean region with the highest maternal mortality rates, Ministry of health statistics show that by 2015, 14 maternal deaths were recorded, while in 2016, 14 deaths were also recorded. However, the mortality rate skyrocketed to 169 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2017.
Guyana has made significant strides in reducing maternal deaths in recent years.
The report went on to note a sharp rise in maternal deaths in 2018 too. International statistics recorded Guyana’s mortality rate at 229 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, which is said to be an overwhelming number for a country with a population of approximately 750,000.
The foregoing findings led to a partnership between the Ministry of Health and the Pan American Health Organisation/World Health Organisation (PAHO/WHO) to address Guyana‘s climbing maternal mortality rates. The successful alliance resulted in a sharp decline in 2019, just one year later. In fact, the death rate fell to a range of seven to 14 in 2019.
According to the report, this was due to the fact that PAHO had started monitoring and assessing the maternal deaths locally. This resulted in PAHO finding that a significant number of the maternal deaths were related to serious haemoglobin deficiencies, which are not detected until late in the pregnancies. This deficiency, a report by the agency said, can lead to serious blood loss in childbirth which eventually leads to death.
Specifically, it stated that since 52 per cent of women go into labour with a low percentage of haemoglobin, and as such, recommendations were made and taken on board for the improvement of the haemoglobin levels in pregnant women.
Further, the report noted that acquiring zero maternal deaths coincides with Guyana achieving the human rights conventions set by the United Nations (UN) to eliminate all preventable maternal deaths.
Even as Guyana makes strides towards zero maternal mortality by working the PAHO/WHO representative on several priority areas, the ministry of Health within the last five years has placed greater emphasis on creating access to primary healthcare for pregnant women.
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