Millennium Development Goals Of WHO Focused On Improving Newborn Care In The First Month Of Life

The World Health Organization’s (WHO) statistics of 2010 revealed that 40% of mortality among infants whose ages are below 5 occurs within the first month of life.

This period is marked by fragility of the infant in terms of environmental adaptation to extreme hot and cold temperatures, sucking ability to have an effective feeding pattern, an established sleeping schedule, emotional security with the care takers and proper positioning when sleeping, feeding and burping.

millennium development goalsThese concerns are assuming that the infant has a healthy and normal condition.

But, if there are abnormalities the risk definitely becomes higher.

The cause of death might have been a result of any disruption in one of those vital conditions, particularly on the first week of life.

This is why the WHO thought that improvement in the infant’s condition for the first month will also decrease the mortality rate particularly in developing countries. The project was coined the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

As part of the WHO’s goals until 2015 they would like to decrease by 16% in the number of underweight children at the end of this year. Parallel to this is their objective to continue the efforts to decrease the number of HIV infections among infants.

Several developing counties have shown improvement in their health status in spite of poor conditions, like the countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone, Mozambique and Rwanda.

These countries progress may not be of interest to many and may not even be worth mentioning to them.

But, this statistics are simply being written to create awareness in people who have the capacity to help and make a difference in the lives of hundreds and thousands of unnoticed and neglected infants around the globe, who like any one of us has the right to live…

If you are one of those who want to reach out and help here are some of the things that these countries need to help them at least have a decent way of life and survive.

Countries like China and Egypt need assistance in improving their country system to accurately monitor infant and maternal mortality and morbidity rates to properly address them.

In sub-Saharan Africa and some parts of South-East Asia they simply need insecticide treated mosquito nets to prevent the spread of malaria, which places the very fragile infant at a very high risk for contracting the virus that can cause his early death.

In some other countries under-nutrition is the third leading cause of death among children.

The WHO continues its efforts to provide accurate data to get enough support from neighboring countries. This is not just WHO’s concern but a concern for all as this mirrors the global health status especially in times of global economic crisis.

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