UE Birth and Deaths register 30,446 babies

Bolgatanga, Jan 23, GNA - The Upper East Regional Births and Deaths Registry by close of November, 2016 registered 30,446 babies in the Region.

Mr Issifu Fuseini Damba, the Regional Director of the Registry, said the Region targeted 36,256 babies to be registered for that year, but by November 2016, it had already captured 30,446 babies from the regional, districts, and community health facilities and in private homes.

He attributed the success rate to hard work by the staff, effective data capturing system used by his outfit and support from health centres especially during immunization days, and communities' readiness to provide information when babies were born.

Mr Damba who said this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Bolgatanga said the registration of deaths was rather discouraging and indicated that though it was free, people were unwilling to register the deaths of relatives especially when such registration would not benefit them directly.

He noted that at the community level, when deaths occurred people found it unnecessary to register the dead people.

However, he reiterated that the registry of births and deaths helped to provide useful, accurate and reliable information on all births and deaths occurring in the region for Socio-economic development of the country.

He said information on the population of the community and region helped in planning for resources for the area.

He also noted that cause of death reports on those who die at health facilities, provided by medical personnel were useful information that also guided family members, community members and government on communicable diseases, and issues of emergencies and interventions.

To help enhance the gathering of such reports, he said community registers had been put in some communities and opinion leaders tasked to capture data of people who died in the area.

He also enumerated challenges faced by staffs that included lack of motorbikes to access distant communities and the lack of adequate staff and volunteers in the various registries.

GNA

By Fatima Anafu Astanga