Malabo — The 60th session of the World Health Organisation (WHO) regional committee has called for the scaling up of interventions, funding and increased political commitment towards reducing the increasing rate of maternal and infant mortality.

Commending the WHO regional committee for Africa on its campaign on accelerated reduction of maternal mortality, the WHO director general, Margaret Chan, said at the opening ceremony of the conference, held at Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, that efforts must be intensified to bring down the alarming figures in order to save the lives of women.

Margaret Chan said issues of eradicating mother to child transmission of HIV/AIDS is of paramount importance if the MDGs is to be achieved, stressing the need that no child is born infected with the virus.

Earlier, the WHO regional director for Africa, Dr Luis Gomes Sambo, unveiling his six strategic directions that will drive actions and interventions in Africa over six years, said issues of health are essential to socio development, peace and stability. He said the strategies include, "supporting and strengthening health systems based on the primary health care approach, putting the health of mothers and children first, accelerated actions on malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis."

Others include intensifying prevention and control of communicable and non-communicable diseases and accelerating response to the determinants of health. The minister of health, Professor Christian Onyebuchi Chukwu, said Nigeria will seek for technical assistance to improve on methods already in place to save the lives of women.