Infant mortality rate slashed – Dr Norton

Guyana’s infant mortality rate has plummeted to a record low within the past six months, Public Health Minister, Dr George Norton said on Monday.

Public Health Dr George Norton Minister (at centre) listens to a doctor inside the refurbished Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the West Demerara Regional Hospital (Government Information Agency photo)
Public Health Dr George Norton Minister (at centre) listens to a doctor inside the refurbished Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the West Demerara Regional Hospital (Government Information Agency photo)

Dr Norton announced a whopping average of 24 deaths for the first half of the year, stating that the rate was at its lowest in the last two years. He said there has been increased consciousness of infant deaths, improved training and more neonatal units installed at public health facilities to help reduce the rate.

The Public Health Ministry has collected data, which has revealed that there was an average of four deaths per month – a considerable drop.

Dr Norton reiterated that the infant mortality rate had become a priority for the Ministry, thus it has taken stringent measures to reduce it.

In 2015, that rate stood at 23.1 per 1000, while child mortality rate under five years of age, which was supposed to be 16, stuck out at 24.2 for 2014.

According to a multi-indicator cluster survey carried out in Guyana, Dr Norton stated, the probability of a baby dying within the first month of life was 22.9 per 1000 live births and between birth and its first birthday, 31.8.

He opined that most infant deaths recorded were caused by infections or the negligence of medical practitioners.

Significant drop

Meanwhile, Dr Norton stated that there have been six cases of maternal death for the past six months, which is also a considerable decline in maternal mortality given the ratio for the previous years.

Recently, a United Nations report disclosed that Guyana was among five countries in the Region with the highest maternal mortality rate, and among six nations where the incidence had amplified notably between 1990 and 2013.

As of December 30, 2015, Guyana had recorded 17 cases of maternal deaths.

This is the cause of the country missing its goal to reduce maternal deaths by three-quarters between the years 1990 and 2015. The maternal mortality ratio has decreased from 270 per cent in 1990 to 86 per cent in 2012. Therefore, in order to achieve its target, Guyana would have had to reduce its maternal mortality rate to 67.5 per cent by the end of 2015.

Chief Medical Officer, Dr Shamdeo Persaud had stated that an acute shortage of obstetricians was one of the reasons for the high mortality rate, along with teenage pregnancy.

Dr Norton, on the other hand, had laid some of the blame at the feet of the health practitioners, stating that some of them had displayed objectionable behaviour when it came to treating pregnant patients.

Nevertheless, he stated that they have managed to control the situation and have employed more doctors to work in the maternity ward of the Georgetown Public Hospital – where most of the country’s population would go to have their babies delivered.

“We have a far way to go, but we are taking every maternal death as one too many and are doing everything in our power to prevent it,” he said, adding that they have employed more specialists to work in the maternal unit and the neonatal unit in public health facilities.

Earlier in the year, the Opposition’s Shadow Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony had stated that the deteriorating primary health care referral system was the root cause of the high maternal mortality rate. He had stated that Guyana would continue to struggle with the problem if the Public Health Ministry did not address the issue of its faltering referral system, particularly in health centres across the country.

He stated that there were many instances when a mother would be experiencing a high-risk pregnancy and health centres would drag their feet to refer patients to a tertiary medical institution.

He suggested that if there was early detection of high-risk pregnancy, many lives would be saved.