80.000 infants and 6.000 women die yearly
By Moma Sandrine
Statistics revealed during a meeting that held recently at the Bamenda regional hospital have shown that about 80.000 children below the age of five die yearly in Cameroon while an estimated 6.000 women die during child birth.
Further details showed that Adamawa, East, Far North and the Northern regions of the the country are the most worrisome regions as far as infant and maternal mortality is concerned.
The census that was carried out in 2014 revealed that 22.000babies die every year before the age of 1month a figure that the ministry of public health considers really alarming.
The increase in maternal and infant mortality has led to the creation of a regional committee for the fight against maternal, neonatal and infant mortality in the North West region of the country. The committee under the supervision of NW governor is expected to put in measures to curb maternal and infant mortality in the region. As the members were officially installed into office, they were called upon to ensure that there is a drop in the death rates among women and children.
Health difficulties raised during the meeting included the insufficiency of blood banks in the district hospitals in the region. We gathered that only 4 out of the 16 health districts in the region own a blood bank causing severe shortage. As such very critical cases needing blood in health districts without a blood bank might end up dying if no immediate measure is taken.
The insufficiency of staff, midwives, doctors, nurses, and equipment in some district hospitals was equally raised as a setback to maintaining maternal and child health.
The statistics of maternal and infant mortality were made known by the coordinator of the national program to combat maternal and child mortality, Dr. Martina Baye.
“In Cameroon, it is estimated that every year we lose five to six thousand women who die because of causes linked to pregnancy or delivery and this is too much, in fact unacceptable. Regarding deaths among children less than 5years old to sum it all I will say it’s about 80.000children and that is too much”.
She went further to caution expectant mothers as some of them are likely to encounter complications at child birth “ It’s been established that if you have one hundred women that are pregnant and about to deliver, when the time comes to deliver, about 15 of them will develop some sort of complications. It is difficult to say in advance who will be part of this 15. So if the women who have to deliver have that information that it is a risk delivering at home or in some place that you are not sure about what will happen to you, they will do everything despite the poor reception in the hospital to go there”.
As the committee to combat maternal, neonatal and infant mortality set out to work, it is expected that a more desirable result will be achieved in the days ahead.