bdnews24.com, Unicef start roundtable to find ways to save every newborn in Bangladesh

The health minister, top UN officials and public health experts have joined a roundtable in Dhaka to find ways to keep ‘every child alive’ in Bangladesh.

bdnews24.com organised the discussion at the National Press Club in Dhaka on Wednesday in partnership with Unicef.

An estimated 170 children die every day before completing one month of their life in Bangladesh largely due to preventable causes. There are cheaper ways to prevent those deaths.

Unicef launched a global campaign in February to keep ‘every child alive’.

The roundtable before the general elections due in December is seen as a way to press the politicians to make newborn care a promise in their pre-election manifesto.

bdnews24.com Editor-in-Chief Toufique Imrose Khalidi is moderating the roundtable.

Health Minister Mohammed Nasim and Prof Abul Kalam Azad, director general for health, and Kazi Mustafa Sarwar, director general for family planning, will speak at the event.

President of Bangladesh Paediatric Association Prof Mohammad Shahidullah is presenting the keynote paper.

UNFPA Representative in Bangladesh Dr Asa Torkelsson, Save the Children’s Deputy Country Director Dr Ishtiaq Mannan, Unicef Bangladesh’s Deputy Representative Sheema Sengupta, Chief of the health section Maya Vandenet and Health Manager Md Ziaul Matin are the other speakers.

 

Bangladesh has earned kudos for reducing under-five deaths. However, the reduction in neonatal mortality is far less than the desired level which now stands at 20 per 1,000 live births, according to the United Nations.

The absolute number of newborn deaths has declined from 241,000 in 1990 to 62,000 in 2016.

But premature births, failing to breathe at birth and infections kill a large number of newborns on the first day of birth.

Eighty-eight percent of the neonates die from preventable causes such as preterm complications (45 percent), perinatal asphyxia (23 percent) and severe infections (20 percent).

Global studies say universal access to products that cost between $0.13 and $6 each could save those babies.

Steroid injections for women in preterm labour to reduce deaths due to premature babies’ breathing problems, resuscitation devices to save babies who do not breathe at birth, chlorhexidine umbilical cord cleansing to prevent infections and injectable antibiotics to treat newborn sepsis and pneumonia are recommended.

The new Health Sector Programme (2017-2022), for the first time, has incorporated a national newborn health programme in the operational plans to scale up newborn care, taking evidence and lessons from existing programmes supported by development partners.

Unicef is a major partner in maternal and neonatal health efforts in Bangladesh and is supporting the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in implementing major initiatives in maternal, neonatal and child health.

That covers almost half of the total districts of Bangladesh, 25 out of 64 districts, mostly in the low-performing areas and covering the most deprived population in those areas.

Improving home and community-based newborn care behaviour and practices are an important component of these initiatives.

Unicef is also supporting the Directorate General of Health Services for upgrading facilities with newborn care units in 32 hospitals and newborn stabilising units in upazila health complexes.