300,000 Newborns Die in Pakistan Every Year
In Pakistan, 5.5 million babies are born every year, out of whom, 300,000 die before completing their first month of life. Worldwide, the number of newborn deaths amounts to four million annually, 75 per cent occurring in the first week after birth.
Medical experts have reported in the British weekly journal The Lancet, that a simple checklist of seven signs can help parents and frontline health workers make quick decisions about which infants need urgent medical attention. If this checklist was extensively used, it could significantly reduce infant deaths.
This study with the potential to save millions of babies from dying without receiving medical attention was conducted in six countries including Pakistan where researchers from Aga Khan University (AKU) contributed data. Dr Anita Zaidi from the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, AKU led the community-based arm of this large study, recruiting more than half of the 3,177 sick infants under seven days old that were included in the analysis. The results of the study will be used to make guidelines for teaching parents and health workers in poor countries about when to seek care for sick babies.
Ismailimail 