Ghana makes progress in effort to reduce infant mortality

Ghana is making strong progress in its effort to reduce infant and child mortality, with the rate of death having been reduced to 42.8 per 1000 live births.

Dr. Luiz Octaviano Amoussou-Gohoungo, National Chairman of the District Directors of Health Services Group, said compared with the year 1993 high of 75.6 per 1000 live births, the achievement was significant.

Addressing the 24th annual general conference of the group in Sunyani, he indicated that maternal health care had also remarkably improved.  

He said available statistics showed that 98.5 per cent of pregnant women, was now receiving antenatal care – up from 82 per cent in 1988.

At the same time, women delivered by skilled attendants had shot up from 40 per cent to 74 per cent, while those with access to postnatal care in the first 48 hours, had climbed to 78.2 per cent. 

The four-day meeting was held under the theme “From the Millennium Development Goals to the Sustainable Development Goals – the role of the district health system”. 

It provided the platform for the Directors to review their performance, shared ideas and discussed effective ways to achieve set targets.                                 

Dr. Amoussou-Gohoungo underlined the group’s commitment to work hard and with passion to help fulfill the mission and vision of the Ghana Health Service (GHS).

It was determined to ensure that more children and women were saved from preventable deaths, he added.  

Dr. Ebenezer Appiah-Denkyira, the Director-General of the GHS, in a speech read for him, reminded the Directors to work closely with their health management teams to protect the gains made in guinea-worm eradication.  

He asked that they continued to improve the disease surveillance system at all levels.

He urged that, as managers of the health system, they also developed innovative strategies to mobilize more resources to support quality healthcare delivery.

Source: GNA