Alarm as 473 children die every day


The UN has raised the alarm over the high number of children who die before they celebrate their fifth birthday.


Some 473 children aged below five years die in Kenya every day. And every hour, five more newborns die from preventable causes, according to Government and Unicef reports.

Shocking new details also show that Kenya is losing one woman every day due to pregnancy-related complications.

This means the country loses 5,840 women annually due to otherwise preventable causes including malaria, unsafe abortions and excessive bleeding.

A Government report released last week spells out new measures meant to reduce mortality among children and mothers. They include abolishing hospital fees for mothers and hiring of new hospital staff.

The UN agency reports that for newborns (children below 28 days), the rate increased from 31 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1993 to 32 deaths per 1,000 births in 1998 and then to 33 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2003.

It goes on to report that infant (under one year) mortality increased from 73 deaths per 1,000 live births to 77 deaths per 1,000 in 2003.

The mortality rate for children under five years of age rose from 105 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1993 to 110 deaths per 1,000 in 1998 and then to 115.

This, according to Unicef, means that one in every 30 children born in Kenya dies in the first 28 days of life.

It also means that one in every 12 children born in Kenya dies before their first birthday, and, one in every nine children dies before reaching their fifth birthday.

The newborns face their greatest risks during the first days and week of life, and 75 per cent of all newborn deaths take place in the first week of life, reports Unicef.

It cites the main causes of the deaths as infections, pre-term birth, low birth weight and asphyxia (lack of oxygen) at birth.

And in newborns, it gives the underlying causes of death as delay in recognising newborn danger signs, delay in referrals to health facilities with capacity to handle the danger, and delay in receiving essential and emergency newborn care in health facilities.

It also cites several services as critical, and which should be available. These are access to skilled care during pregnancy, delivery and after delivery period; access to newborn resuscitation skills, and early identification and treatment of infections.

Malaria has been cited by Unicef as the biggest killer of children in Kenya, killing 34,000 of them under the age of five every year (an average of 93 per day).

It says that about 3.5 million children under five years are at risk of developing severe malaria, which can result in severe anaemia and brain damage.

In addition, pregnant women are particularly susceptible to malaria, resulting in anaemia and low birth weight and maternal death. The agency also blames the deaths on poor breastfeeding habits among Kenyan mothers.

It says that though a child should exclusively be breastfed within the first six months, less than three per cent of babies are exclusively breastfed, with some mothers weaning their babies too early, even immediately after birth.

As a result of this, the babies get sick more often, and stand a higher risk of Vitamin A and Iron deficiencies.

It also leads to poor physical growth and development (one in every five babies are underweight, and one in every three babies are stunted).

Poor performance

The children also have poor brain development, leading to poor performance in school. Immunisation is one way of ensuring that children don’t die of preventable childhood diseases, including polio and measles.

According to Unicef, Kenya’s ability to remain polio-free is threatened by circulation of the polio virus in the neighbouring countries of Somalia, Ethiopia and Sudan, and the frequent migration of nomadic pastoralists across those borders.

Cases of polio in Kenya were confirmed in 2006, about 22 years after the last recorded case.


SOURCE :

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/484270/-/item/0/-/ei9e0n/-/index.html



Leaders Urged to Act On Infant Mortality Rate

At least 473 children under five years of age die in Kenya every day due to preventable causes, a recent report reveals.

The report, titled "Countdown to 2015: The role of Parliamentarians in accelerating the attainment of MDGs 4 and 5 in Kenya", was compiled by the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef), the World Health Organisation (WHO), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation and that of Medical Services.

The report further indicates that one out of every nine children born alive dies before their fifth birthday, and that at the end of one hour, five more new-born babies will have died.

Preventable causes

It cites the following causes: complications in pregnancy and child birth, and newborn illness. It also cites pneumonia and diarrhoea, which account for 20 per cent and 17 per cent of the deaths respectively.

Other causes reported are malaria and HIV/Aids, which account for 14 per cent and 15 per cent of the deaths.

The report says malnutrition is also an underlying factor. Other preventable causes include lack of safe water, basic hygiene and sanitation and inability to access health services due to poor roads.

In addition, poor transport and communication systems, and low utilisation of health services due to lack of equipment, supplies and qualified staff.

Lack of knowledge on appropriate interventions that can save lives at household and community levels and harmful traditional practices, myths and misconceptions regarding reproductive and child health have also been cited as causes of child mortality.

And the report calls for urgent action if the situation is to be brought under control. Shortage of staff and sometimes availability of unskilled and unmotivated manpower at public hospitals should immediately be redressed, the report recommends.

It urges the authorities to look into the issue of poor infrastructure such as outdated facilities and equipment, referral system and poor communication.

It also calls for a fresh look into health financing. The report paints a grim picture of the situation, casting aspersions on the ability of the country to attain Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 4 and 5, which aim at reducing child mortality and improving maternal health respectively by the year 2015.

This, according to the report, is because child mortality has been on the increase in the last 19 years and maternal mortality deteriorating within the same period.

According to the report, child deaths increased from 90 in every 1,000 births in 1990 to 121 in 2003. Maternal mortality stands at 560 in every 100,000 births.

The report says the situation can be rectified if there is political will among parliamentarians and other groups.

And with only seven years to 2015, which was set by the United Nations as the time the MDGs are supposed to have been met, attention now seems to shift to the lawmakers.

Blames lawmakers

The document says MPs should play a key role in coming up with the necessary legal and regulatory framework to accelerate the attainment of the goals.

According to the report, what has contributed to the deteriorating trend is a serious lack of awareness on the magnitude and impact of deaths of mothers and children.

It blames lawmakers for not prioritising maternal and child issues in the national budget. The report wants the MPs to ensure an adequate budget allocation for maternal and child health programmes.

It also requires them to address social determinants of health - water, sanitation, gender and poverty.

It also recommends that disparities and inequities in service delivery across the country, including the deployment of staff and incentive offers, be addressed.

SOURCE :

http://allafrica.com/stories/200810270396.html

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La dette va empêcher le Kenya de lutter contre la pauvreté


Le Kenya va atteindre trois des huit objectifs du millénaire pour le développement (ODM) visant à réduire la pauvreté et à améliorer la qualité de vie.

Cependant, des obstacles comme un fardeau élevé de la dette publique, les conditions climatiques changeantes et la baisse des financements par les donateurs vont s'opposer à la réalisation de l'ensemble des objectifs en matière de lutte contre la pauvreté, ont conclu dans un rapport des responsables du ministère kényan de la Planification.
Le ministre kényan de la Planification Wycliffe Oparanya a déclaré jeudi que le pays n'allait probablement pas atteindre les OMD à moins que la communauté internationale change son approche du développement de l'Afrique et fournisse plus de fonds pour lutter contre la dégradation de l'environnement.
Le Kenya est sur le point d'atteindre seulement trois des OMD, parmi lesquels, celui de l'accès de tous à l'éducation et ceux de la réduction de l'impact du VIH/SIDA, mais les principaux objectifs de réduction de la pauvreté extrême resteront hors de portée, selon M. Oparanya.
Ce pays d'Afrique de l'Est est également sur le point de réaliser l'objectif 5 de la réduction des décès liés à l'accouchement comme conséquence des efforts du gouvernement d'introduire la gratuité de l'accouchement dans les hôpitaux, qui a accru la possibilité de donner la vie dans de bonnes conditions dans les hôpitaux publics.
"Il y a de plus en plus de chances d'atteindre les objectifs deux, cinq et six. Le gouvernement va par conséquent augmenter progressivement les financements par rapport aux niveaux actuels en ce qui concerne les activités liées aux OMD et la communauté internationale doit honorer ses engagements d'augmenter l'aide publique au développement pour compléter les efforts du gouvernement en ce sens".
M. Oparanya a déclaré que le gouvernement a accru ses dépenses sociales et économiques pour aider à la réalisation des projets fixés dans le cadre des OMD, ce qui a donné des résultats, même s'il reste encore des objectifs à atteindre.
"Le gouvernement s'engage à réaliser et à atteindre les OMD, mais il y a des obstacles comme le fardeau de la dette, une aide publique au développement relativement basse, un système commercial mondial déséquilibré, le VIH/SIDA et une croissance démographique rapide", a-t-il indiqué.
Selon lui, à part les objectifs deux et six des OMD, le Kenya ne va pas atteindre le reste des objectifs à la date fixée de 2015.
Le principal problème, a-t-il déclaré, restant l'insuffisance des ressources financières pour atteindre les OMD.
Il a fustigé les pays riches pour leurs promesses non tenues d'éradiquer la pauvreté en Afrique, malgré leurs promesses généreuses faites dans le cadre de la Déclaration du Millénaire.
Le ministre kényan a déploré l'incapacité des pays riches et développés à accorder une aide appréciable à l'Afrique pour permettre au continent d'atteindre ces objectifs.
Il a ajouté que les flux de l'APD restaient bas tandis que seulement cinq Etats membres de l'Organisation pour la coopération économique et le développement (OCDE) avaient consacré comme le préconisait l'ONU, 0,7 pour cent de leur Produit intérieur brut au soutien de la réalisation des OMD.
L'officiel kényan a également déploré que l'accès au marché restait faible pour les pays africains pauvres qui avaient besoin d'un accès plus élargi aux marchés pour écouler leurs produits agricoles.
"Des progrès significatifs sont nécessaires pour résoudre les problèmes de la dette et du transfert de la technologie vers les pays en développement. Le Kenya ploie toujours sous un service de la dette qui grève ses ressources qui lui permettraient d'atteindre ces objectifs", a déclaré M. Oparanya.

SOURCE :

http://www.intelink.info/fre/actualites/economie/0810232035_la_dette_va_empecher_le_kenya_de_lutter_contre_la_pauvrete

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