From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Tue Nov 10 2009 - 08:09:39 EST
"While acknowledging that most African nations are not on track to meet the
goals by then, the report highlights noteworthy exceptions. For example,
Eritrea has achieved an annual 4 percent rate of reduction in under-five
mortality since 1990, Tanzania and Ghana have experienced up to 30 percent
declines since 2000, and Malawi was recently declared itself on track for
MDG4."
*http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-11/naos-ust110909.php*
*Public release date: 9-Nov-2009
*
Contact: William Kearney
wkearney@nas.edu
202-334-2138
National Academy of Sciences
Using science to save lives of mothers and children in Africa New report By
African Science Academies
ACCRA, Ghana -- The lives of almost 4 million women, newborns, and children
in sub-Saharan Africa could be saved every year if well-established,
affordable health care interventions reached 90 percent of families,
according to a joint report by the national science academies of seven
African countries. Many African nations are underutilizing existing
scientific knowledge to save lives, says the report, which calls on
scientists, health care providers, policymakers, and development agencies to
partner on ways to use the latest evidence to fill the gap between the
discovery of new interventions and their delivery to families most in need.
The report was released today at the annual conference of the African
Science Academy Development Initiative, which aims to strengthen effective
links between African science academies and national decision makers.
Half of the world's maternal and child deaths each year occur in sub-Saharan
Africa, where 265,000 mothers die during pregnancy or childbirth, 1.2
million babies die in their first month of life, and an additional 3.2
million do not reach their fifth birthday. More than 880,000 stillbirths go
largely unnoticed by global researchers and policymakers. The U.N.'s
Millennium Development Goals call for reducing under-five mortality by
two-thirds (MDG4) and maternal mortality by three-fourths (MDG5) by 2015.
While acknowledging that most African nations are not on track to meet the
goals by then, the report highlights noteworthy exceptions. For example,
Eritrea has achieved an annual 4 percent rate of reduction in under-five
mortality since 1990, Tanzania and Ghana have experienced up to 30 percent
declines since 2000, and Malawi was recently declared itself on track for
MDG4.
"Ghana has achieved a reduction in under-five mortality over the past five
years as well as an increase in skilled attendance at birth, but to get on
track for the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, we [must] value the
evidence-based priorities presented in this report," said Professor Reginald
Fraser Amonoo, president of the Ghana Academy Arts and Sciences, which is
celebrating its 50th anniversary this year and hosting the ASADI conference.
The new report, SCIENCE IN ACTION: SAVING THE LIVES OF AFRICA'S MOTHERS,
NEWBORNS, AND CHILDREN, encourages policymakers and other stakeholders to
use a scientific approach when setting priorities to improve maternal,
newborn, and child health. In particular, local data should be used to
identify and prioritize strategic, evidence-based, and essential health
interventions that, if scaled up, would have the greatest impact on saving
lives.
The report includes a new analysis in which modeling software called the
LIVES SAVED TOOL (LIST) was used to estimate the number of lives that would
be saved by increasing coverage of a range of essential maternal, newborn,
and child health interventions. The analysis suggests that if, by 2015, 90
percent of children under five years old and mothers were covered by already
well-known and essential health interventions, about 4 million lives would
be saved annually, avoiding an estimated 85 percent of current maternal,
newborn, and child deaths; this would exceed the MDGs for maternal and child
health. Some of the most effective interventions include increased
availability of contraception, skilled attendance at childbirth, neonatal
resuscitation and improved newborn care, case management of pneumonia, and
promotion of breastfeeding, malaria prevention, and immunization.
The authors of the report also used national data to assess the effect of
achievable increases within two years in priority interventions in the seven
countries with science academies participating in ASADI -- Cameroon, Ghana,
Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, and Uganda -- as well as Ethiopia and
Tanzania. Achievable increases are defined as improvements in the quality of
care for all births that take place in facilities and a 20 percent increase
in selected interventions provided outside of facilities. The analysis
showed that such increases in coverage in the nine example countries would
save the lives of 770,000 women, newborns, and children each year.
Because the context of health systems varies among countries, interventions
have different effects. The report authors therefore showed how many lives
could be saved by selected priority interventions in different health system
contexts. For example, in settings with few births in facilities, increasing
family planning is feasible, saves many lives, and is relatively low cost.
The estimated cost of these priority interventions is "extremely affordable"
on a per capita basis, the report notes. In fact, the average cost for
increasing these selected high-impact interventions to achievable levels in
the nine example countries within two years is less than $2 per capita.
Based on the evidence, priorities for maternal, newborn, and child health in
sub-Saharan Africa include making childbirth safe, giving newborn babies a
healthy start, and preventing and managing infections in newborns and young
children, the report says. The evidence also shows that high-impact
interventions are most effective and efficient when integrated into existing
health delivery systems, yet more research is needed on how to deliver care
closer to home and reach populations in remote areas. More study is needed
on the use of alternative cadres for certain tasks as well.
The report was authored by representatives of the seven African science
academies and a team they assembled of more than 60 experts. One of the
report's coordinating authors, Joy Lawn, director of global evidence and
policy at Saving Newborn Lives/Save the Children in Cape Town, South Africa,
believes that the report will serve as a call to action. "Accelerated action
now based on data and science has the potential to saves millions of lives
every year and to put many African countries on track to reach the
Millennium Development Goals for maternal and children survival," she said.
"All of us have a role to play."
###
The development of the report was supported by the U.S. National Academies;
Save the Children; the Academy of Sciences of South Africa; Johns Hopkins
Bloomberg School of Public Health; Mars, Inc.; and UNICEF. The report,
additional details on the analysis and on assumptions used in the LIST
model, a list of contributors, and more information about ASADI are
available at http://national-academies.org/asadi. ASADI is a collaboration
among the African science academies, the U.S. National Academies, and others
to strengthen the ability of the African academies to inform policymaking
and public discourse through evidence-based advice. The initiative is funded
by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
----[This List to be used for Eritrea Related News Only]----