AP to Come Up With Action Plan to Reduce Maternal And Infant Mortality
Representatives from UNICEF and WHO, among others, were present
Vijayawada: The Andhra Pradesh government is to come up with an action plan to reduce maternal and infant mortality.
Health minister Satya Kumar Yadavannounced in a statement here on Wednesday that they were formulating a state-level action plan to initiate precautionary measures to reduce the maternal and infant mortality rate, circumstances leading to their mortality, lapses in dealing with such cases among the doctors and the staff members, and to take steps to avoid recurrence of lapses.
He said that a three-member doctors' team involving a child specialist, gynaecologist and the one dealing with social and preventive medicine for each district in the state would be constituted so that the team would visit all v and district medical and health offices and inquire about healthcare services being provided to the pregnant women and children below five years and also infants.
Based on the district-wise reports received from the teams of doctors, a state-level action plan would be formulated to deal with the issue.
In AP, 19 infants are losing their lives for 1,000 births within just a few days of their birth against the national record of 25 deaths. The authorities intend to focus on the death of infants within 28 days.
A workshop was held here on Wednesday for the doctors who were part of the teams on how to collect information pertaining to issues leading to maternal and infant mortality. Representatives from UNICEF and WHO, among others, were present.