By Ruth Yeabu Sesay
Minister of Health and Sanitation, Dr Austin Demby has confirmed the World Health Organization (WHO) rating of Sierra Leone as the best performer in the reduction of maternal mortality rate in Africa. He stated this during a press conference at Youyi Building.
He said the ministry is now working on a rethink of transformative health care in Sierra Leone which focuses on patient -care since everyone around the world now looks up to malaria, tuberculosis and vaccination programmes.
He spoke of how since 2018 there has been a dramatic drop -60% in cases of maternal mortality which he said is something that the world is excited about for Sierra Leone.
He stated that in cases where we use to top the list of maternal mortality, we are now better than Nigeria, Liberia, Guinea and Kenya. Mortality has dropped to 443 per 100, 000 live births but the minister insisted that the ministry wants to drop it even further by implementing strategies.
Demby said one of the strategies for reducing maternal mortality was reducing teenage pregnancy because teenagers constitute 20% of people who die during childbirth.
“So we have a deliberate programme which deals with how to prevent teenage pregnancy by focusing on prevention first, having sexuality education, and ensuring that if they need to deliver, the various privileges are available to them”, the minister stated.
Improved access to quality primary health care, he observed can be done by appropriate equipment and institutionalized equipment maintenance, real-time granular data w by harmonizing prenatal, delivery and neonatal data and exploring electronic reporting of health facility data.
Improved ambulance service by community engagement and education, improved secondary and tertiary care services for complications are also being addressed, he went on.
He said with these strategies the ministry will be able to ensure that patients in need of care are treated properly.
Sierra Leone had the highest maternal mortality rate in the region between 2017 to 2020.
The ministry on the 12th of April 2023 also launched a school health programme.
Copyright © 2023 Politico (14/04/23)
