Every Death Counts: South Africa’s Mothers, Babies, And Children
April 11, 2008
The combined authors of three health reports on South African maternal,neonatal, and child deaths have come together to launch a new report,entitled Every Death Counts, which analyzed the combined data andproposed key strategies to reduce this horrible mortality burden inthis country. This was published in a Public Health Paper in theCountdown Special Issue of The Lancet, put out on April 12, 2007.
In this study, Joy Lawn, Saving Newborn Lives/Save the Children-US, andcolleagues from the South Africa of the Every Death Counts WritingGroup say: “All indications are that maternal and child mortality hasincreased since the baseline for Millennium Development Goals in 1990.”Every year in South Africa, at least 1,600 mothers die to pregnancy andchildbirth complications. Approximately 20,000 babies are stillbornwhile 22,000 die before reaching the age of one month. In total, 75,000children die before turning five.
Five major health challenges contribute to this toll: pregnancy andchildbirth complications, newborn illness, childhood illness, HIV andAIDS, and malnutrition. South Africa is one of twelve countriesglobally in which child mortality rates have increased since 1990. As aresult, the country must now achieve a yearly rate of 15% reduction tomeet the Millennium Development Goal 4 by 2015. According to theauthors, “This toll is too high in view of South Africa’s status as amiddle-income country and capacity to provide services…The existinghigh coverage of many key interventions presents an opportunity to savelives by focusing on high-quality services and integration of HIV/AIDScare, while addressing inequity by reach the poorest and marginalizedpopulations.”
Some of these lives could be spared: over 40,000 babies and childreneach year could be saved if high-impact interventions reached allfamilies in South Africa. With more investments in the solutions thatsave babies and children, more women’s lives could be saved. There aremany success stories, of individual clinicians and hospitals that havemade an impact in a short time, but national progress, they point out,will require national leadership.
The authors conclude that this new data must be used to shape futurepolicy. “National mortality audits for mothers, babies, and childrenare an achievement and present recommendations and strategies to savelives. The new Every Death Counts report brings these aims together asone harmonised set of recommendations. However, if South Africa is tosee a reduction in maternal, neonatal, and child mortality, theserecommendations need to be fully implemented to turn mortality datainto action. This goal needs accountability at all levels. Then everydeath will truly count.”
Every death counts: use of mortality audit data for decisionmaking to save the lives of mothers, babies, and children in SouthAfrica
Every Death Counts Writing Group
The Lancet, Vol 371, April 12, 2008, 1294-1304
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South Africa in the spotlight
Editorial
The Lancet, Vol 371, April 12, 2008, 1215
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Written by Anna Sophia McKenney
Copyright: Medical News Today
