Pakistan - Alarming statistics: Infant mortality in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa at a worrying 70 per 1,000 births

The infant mortality rate in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) has reached an alarming 70 out of 1,000 newborns but provincial health authorities are still far from being able to deal with complications faced by mothers and their babies.

Keeping the increasing mortality rate of mothers and newborns in mind, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) has stepped up to help overcome the deficiencies in health centres across the province.

Maternal Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) Provincial Manager Dr Sahib Gul told The Express Tribune that SAARC offered Rs40.2 million to arm the centres with the necessary equipment and expertise to reduce the deaths of infants and mothers.

Gul said SAARC wanted to upgrade MNCH centres across the country, but lack of interest from other provinces prompted the organisation to focus its attention on facilitating the institutes of Manki Sharif in Nowshera, Yar Hussain in Swabi and Lakki Marwat after the K-P government followed their idea.

He said SAARC was willing to upgrade machinery and renovate or construct buildings, apart from training staffers, to bring them at par with international standards. Gul said the last meeting for this purpose was held on October 8 and it was decided to upgrade the three centres to cater to the needs of the areas’ inhabitants.

Experts said that neonatal mortality rate (number of infants dying before reaching 28 days of age) had reached 54 per 1,000 births, while infant mortality rate (babies dying before the age of 12 months) was 70 out of 1,000.

Health and nutrition expert Dr Jamil said maternal mortality rate across the country stood at 275 out of 100,000. He blamed lack of expertise among neonatologists and the shortage of skilled birth attendants as the reasons behind the high mortality rates.

Jamil added that in most cases, untrained nurses fail to clean newborns properly and the infants die of asphyxia when fluids clog their respiratory system. He said the second highest cause of death of infants was hypothermia as the newborns need to be covered and kept warm.