[b]SA[/b] is one of the countries that will miss next year’s United Nations [b]Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)[/b] on reducing child and maternal deaths, a study shows. [s]Business Day[/s] reports that the government needs to scale up its reproductive health programmes and the roll-out of antiretroviral treatment, which has helped reduce the mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Two of the health-related MDGs require countries to reduce by two-thirds the deaths of children under the age of five, and bring down by three-quarters the maternal mortality ratio between 1990 and 2015. [b]The Countdown to 2015 report[/b], released at the [b]Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health[/b] conference in Johannesburg, shows that fewer than half of 75 countries studied would meet the target. SA has reduced under-five child mortality from 61 per 1,000 births in 1990 to 45, but it was unlikely to meet the target of 20. It has made slow progress in cutting maternal deaths from 150 per 100,000 in 1990 to 140, against a target of 38.
[link url=http://www.bdlive.co.za/national/health/2014/07/01/sa-to-miss-target-to-decrease-child-and-maternal-deaths]Full Business Day report[/link]
[link url=http://www.countdown2015mnch.org]Countdown to 2015 report[/link]
Meanwhile, two large analyses of maternal health programmes in developing countries report that efforts to cut maternal deaths, appeared almost useless, raising troubling questions about wasted expenditure. [s]ABC News[/s] reports that according to the research papers, including one tracking more than 300,000 women in 30 countries, scientists found no link between the supposedly life-saving interventions and maternal death rates. Areas that used the interventions didn't have better survival rates for mothers than areas that didn't. The two papers are the biggest to assess the effectiveness of maternal health strategies.
However, Dr Marleen Temmerman, director of [b]World Health Organisation’s Maternal Health Department[/b] isn’t convinced the interventions don’t work. She suspects there were problems implementing the strategies. Temmerman also said it would be dangerous if donors abruptly slashed their support for maternal health initiatives. ‘The message is not to stop investing, it's to invest money more wisely,’ she said.
[link url=http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/studies-question-strategies-save-mothers-24353189]Full ABC News report[/link]
[link url=http://www.researchgate.net/publication/234161899_Assessment_of_Obstetric_and_Neonatal_Health_Services_in_Developing_Country_Health_Facilities]American Journal of Perinatology abstract[/link]
[link url=http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/112697/1/WHO_RHR_14.13_eng.pdf]WHO research summary[/link]