Africa: 'No Excuse' for Newborn Death Rate

Photo: UNICEF/Olivier Asselin

An infant receives a dose of oral polio vaccine during a routine immunization session, at the Henriette Konan Bedie Community Hospital, Abidjan, Cte dIvoire.

Cape Town A series of papers published on Tuesday is laying the ground for concerted international action to reduce deaths among newborn babies - which reach their highest levels in sub-Saharan African countries.

Nine of the 10 riskiest countries in the world for a baby to be born are in Africa , the authors note.

"There has been a fatalistic acceptance from both communities and governments", Professor Joy Lawn, a Ugandan-born pediatrician at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told AllAfrica in a telephone interview.

A lead author of the series, Lawn says it is not inevitable that an African baby has the worst chance of survival . "Some of the poorest African countries have made the most progress in reducing newborn deaths, by picking simple things to do and doing them well."

She says over 70 percent of newborn deaths are preventable with currently available techniques. And in addition to saving the lives of newborns, applying the proven strategies will save the lives of mothers and improve the prospects for babies that would have survived but will also benefit from the interventions.

In 2012, the world's worst death rate for newborns was in Sierra Leone, with 49.5 deaths for every 1,000 live births. In Somalia and Guinea-Bissau, it was 45.7 deaths for every 1,000 live births, and only marginally better in the other African countries in the group: Angola, 45.4; Lesotho, 45.3; the Democratic Republic of Congo, 43.5; Mali, 41.5; the Central African Republic, 40.9; and Cote d'Ivoire, 39.9. Pakistan was the only non-African country in the world's worst 10.

"If current trends continue," a press release accompanying the studies says, "it will be over a century before a baby born in Africa has the same chances of survival as a baby born in North America or Europe."

The studies also show that Nigeria is one of three countries in the world - with India and Pakistan - which, with the highest number of births, also have the highest overall numbers of newborn deaths, and which have made slowest progress in reducing the death rate. Newborn deaths in Nigeria total 267,000 a year; for India the figure is 779,000 and Pakistan 202,400. The Democratic Republic of Congo is in the top five countries for newborn deaths, with 118,000 babies dying a year.

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Africa: 'No Excuse' for Newborn Death Rate