E-drug: Maternal mortality worldwide
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Dear e-druggers,
Found this on my Netscape start page. What and how long will it
take to close the gap ?
Valeria
Dr Valeria Frighi
Oxford Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism
Churchill Hospital
Oxford
UK
e-mail: valeria.frighi@dtu.ox.ac.uk
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Childbirth Deaths Higher Among Africans
Geneva (AP) - African women have a one in 16 chance of dying
during childbirth - a rate 175 times greater than that in the West,
the United Nations said Monday. Most maternal deaths and
disability result from delays in recognizing complications, reaching
a medical facility or receiving quality care, said the study by the
World Health Organization, the Children's Fund and the Population
Fund. "Much of this death and suffering could be avoided if all
women had the assistance of a skilled health worker during
pregnancy and delivery, and access to emergency medical care
when complications arise,'" the study said. Since accurate figures
on maternal mortality are difficult to come by, the agencies
developed a way of estimating the number of deaths in countries
lacking statistics.
The new method showed that 95 percent of the 529,000 maternal
deaths in 2000 occurred in Africa and Asia.
WHO Director-General Lee Jong-wook said many African women
deliver their children alone or with untrained attendants.
"Skilled attendants are vital because they can recognize and
prevent medical crises,'' he said.
UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy called the death rate
"unacceptably high'' and said there was an urgent need to provide
better care, especially in Africa.
Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, executive director of the Population Fund,
said lives also would be saved if women had access to voluntary
family planning.
In 2000, the most recent year for which statistics were available,
the death rate per 100,000 live births ranged from 20 women in
developed countries to 920 women in sub-Saharan Africa, the
agencies said.
The rate in south central Asia was 520 and in southeastern Asia
210.
The rate in Oceania was 240 and in Latin America and the
Caribbean 190.
On the Net: http://www.who.int/reproductive-health/MNBH/
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