Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo)
11 February 2009
Maputo — Mozambican Health Minister Ivo Garrido reiterated in Maputo on Wednesday the need to rethink progress in implementing the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and plan future actions.
The Goals were set at the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000. They include reducing by half the number of people living on less than a dollar a day between 1990 and 2015, ensuring that all children have access to full primary education, eliminating gender disparity in education, and halving the percentage of people without access to clean drinking water and basic sanitation.
Among the MDGs of direct concern to the health service are the targets of reducing child mortality by two thirds and maternal mortality by three quarters between 1990 and 2015.
Addressing the opening session of a National Meeting on the MDGs, Garrido said that most developing countries are in danger of failing to meet the MDGs, and Mozambique is no exception.
"We must diagnose our weak points in the efforts to meet the MDGs, and find the best ways forward", he said.
The first day of the meeting is dedicated to discussions around the results obtained in the health sector. Garrido pointed out that in Mozambique, and in many other developing countries, three quarters of all maternal deaths are preventable. They result from causes such as haemorrhages, sepsis, prolonged labour time, and high blood pressure during pregnancy
Nonetheless, there has been some progress. The available statistics indicate that the maternal mortality rate in Mozambique dropped from 692 to 408 deaths per 100,000 live births between 1997 and 2002. Over the same period infant mortality dropped from 145 to 124 per 100,000 live births.
Despite this improvement, it is estimated that about 11 women die every day in Mozambique from complications of pregnancy and childbirth.
"Maternal mortality is the most important indicator in the health system", said Garrido. A reduction in the maternal mortality rate is a clear sign that the health system is improving, and any worsening in the rate would be an equally clear sign of deterioration.
Gynaecologists and paediatricians conducted supervisory and technical support work in all provinces in 2008, and made an assessment of maternal, neo-natal and infant health, allowing the teams to identify the problems that lead to high mortality rates.
Among the problems detected were that stocks of laboratory reagents necessary for the diagnosis of diseases such as syphilis, HIV, and malaria frequently run out. There are also shortages of essential drugs, such as antibiotics and anticonvulsants, and insufficient trained staff.
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