Mangoa Mosota And Agency
23 April 2008
Nairobi — Kenya is among countries that account for 97 per cent of maternal and child deaths globally.
A UN report also says the countries were not making adequate progress in providing health care.
The World Health Organisation cites a number of areas that have not been addressed in relation to the health of pregnant mothers and children below five years.
Tracking progress in maternal, newborn and child survival: Countdown to 2015 - The 2008 Report, was released last week and studies 68 developing countries.
Twenty-six of the countries or 38 per cent made insufficient progress in reducing child mortality. "In 12 countries, the average annual rates of reduction in under-five mortality since 1990 has not changed," the report says.
The report shows that poor nutrition was the key cause of more than a third of deaths among children under the age of five.
Besides, it is the underlying cause of a fifth of maternal deaths at childbirth.
The UN agency said deaths in the first month of life account for 40 per cent of deaths globally in children under the age of five or four million annually.
However, the report indicates that up to 3.2 million babies die each year in the first 12 weeks after birth.
"Pneumonia, diarrhoea and malaria, together with under-nutrition, caused 54 per cent of the 10.6 million annual deaths in the first five years," the report states.
In the 68 countries, coverage rates for pneumonia, diarrhoea and malaria treatment are poor and are not improving, the document adds.
In Africa, close to a million children below the age of five die from malaria annually.
A collaboration among individuals and institutions established in 2005, Countdown aims to stimulate country action by tracking coverage for interventions needed to attain Millennium Development Goals four and five and, in addition, parts of one, six and seven.
Through the unified effort, national and international policy makers, programme implementers, development and media partners and researchers are working together to summarise, synthesise and disseminate the best and most recent information on country-level progress towards high, sustained and equitable coverage with health interventions to save women and children.
The report was launched at the second Countdown to 2015 Conference held in Cape Town, South Africa, from April 17 to 19, with the 118th Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly.
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