High Child Mortality Rate In Ghana And The Key Issues For Considerations

Children, the saying goes are the future of every nation and tomorrow’s leader. As much as I agree with this, one may easily find contradictions whenever trying to interrogate some of the basic reality surrounding the health and survive of children in Ghana. This makes me wonder if everyone else sees things from my view point or otherwise.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) defines childhood as the space between birth and the attainment of adulthood. The members of the world’s population who fall within this group suffer a lot of modifiable risks and preventable death. This has made me ponder over how we can as a nation live the talk by ensuring that truly the leaders of our nation tomorrow are well taken care of, to ensure that the progress we dream of as a nation in our economic, social, cultural, political, religious and technological development will come to pass. Ghana’s effort towards achieving millennium development goal 4 (MDG4), which relates to reducing child mortality is at the crossroad. Isn [A1] ‘t it alarming that children in Ghana are more likely to die 10 times more than those in developed countries? According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the group of children who suffer mostly from this canker are those between the days zero, first day of delivery, to below five years of life. This is evident in the news released by the WHO- on 19th of October, 2017; which revealed that 7000 newborns died every day, despite steady decrease in children under five death. Also the United Nation reported in their new report that out of the 15 000 children who died in 2016, 46% representing 700 babies-died in the first 28 days of life. At current trends, 60 million children will die before their fifth birthday between 2017 and 2030, half of them will be newborns according to a report released by Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality (IGME) which is made up of UNICEF, WHO, the World Bank and the population Division of United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA).In Ghana, the mortality rate for under-5 (per 1,000 live births) was 58.80 as of 2016. As over the past 56 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 209.30 in 1960 and a minimum value of 58.80 in 2016. This clearly shown that, as a nation we had not done enough to eradicate this canker.

Of the many causes of these death, pneumonia, septicemia, meningitis and, diarrhea counts for most neonatal mortally. The rest are mainly birth asphyxia and prematurity. Also, many modifiable factors such as poverty, diseases associated with pre term birth or delivery, lack of qualified skilled personnel in some parts of the country, poor Ante Natal Care, Intra partum care and Post Natal Care diseases due to infection and diarrhoea are to be blame for this insult. But let us call spade a spade, critical and remote cause of child mortality are not too different from observations largely made for maternal mortality- challenges in seeking care, cultural considerations, gender empowerment, huge constraints with identification of the sick child who needs urgent attention both at the community and health service delivery, delay in the provision of the right care and interventions, and non-adherence to the use of standard and protocols within our health institution. These factors contribute significantly to child mortality. This has indulged the keen interest of major governmental and non-governmental organizations including the IGME, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), just to mention a few in the fight towards the reduction of preventable child mortality

.We must also understand that under- five child mortality rate of any country is a leading indicator of the level of child health and its overall development. Over the years, we have had knowledge of what works and what fails. Over 80percent of child mortality is preventable through multiple interventions both with health institution and at the community level. We are well aware of innovations and best practices that have improved child health and reduced mortality so what we should be doing is to take advantage of these evidence –base child health and survival interventions which have evolved over the years. For example, vitamin A supplementation, exclusive breastfeeding, immunization just to mention a few. These interventions have had tremendous impact on child mortality in African. Consideration efforts must go into creating for example an effective referral system that gives equal attention to improvement in road and communication as well as efficient and adequate transportation and logistics. Employing community and household level cost effective interventions are the key desirable fact that clearly state that child mortality is higher in the rural area and among vulnerable poorer and less educated families.

Community-based health planning and services (CHPS) as a major policy in the health service provision must be given the attention it deserves by ways of resources and leadership commitment. This is not to be treated as option for the health sector. It is indeed a major paradigm shift in the health provision, resulting from health sector reforms and must be accorded its place in our overall goal at improving health access and outcomes. The CHPS has therefore demonstrated consistency in giving timely and sufficient care to newborns thereby increasing their chances of survival. This evidence find strong expression in the statistics of the child and survival in the upper and western region where CHPS has received strong support and leadership commitment. . Also, the effects of the CHPS has also shown positive impact on the country as this evidence show Since 1988, the annual average rate of decline in neonatal, infant, and under-five mortality in Ghana was 0.6, 1.0, and 1.2%, respectively. From 1988 to 1989, neonatal, infant, and under-five mortality declined from 48 to 33 per 1,000, 72 to 58 per 1,000, and 108 to 83 per 1,000, respectively, whereas from 1989 to 2008, neonatal mortality increased by 2 per 1,000 while infant and under-five mortality further declined by 6 per 1,000 and 17 per 1,000, respectively. This clearly shown that the effects that the CHPS had brought to health service delivery in making sure that child mortality is reduced has been good.

Poverty is one of the major issues for consideration if we want to reduce child mortality. Measures must be taken to financially equip marginalized families to provide them the financial ability to access timely and quality health care during pregnancy and after birth.

Also there should be quality Ante Natal, Intra partum and Post Natal care delivery to all pregnant and nursing mothers. The issue of lack of apparatus required for quality health care delivery in certain parts of the Ghana must be tackled amicably. Moreover, there should be the availability of sufficient number of skilled personnel like midwifes, doctors and other qualified health professions to deliver quality obstetric care at the door step of pregnant and nursing mothers in Ghana.

“The life of 50 million under-fives have been saved since 2000, a testament to the serious commitment by government and development partners to tackle preventable child death. But unless we do more to stop babies from dying the day they are born, or the day after their birth, this progress will remain incomplete. We have the knowledge and the technologies that are required - we just need to take them where they are most needed.” Stefan Swartling Peterson, UNICEF Chief of Health .As a nation, there is some progress but we are still far from the DMG target of reducing child mortality to 35per1000per live births and neonatal mortality to 28 per 1000 live births. If we continue to do things the same way without accelerated effort and commitment, then we can be sure to meet our MDG 4 target far beyond 2035.

ALEXANDER OPOKU
PHYSICIAN ASSISTANT STUDENT
LEVEL 200
UCC

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