82,000 Babies are Dying Every Year

The National Health Institute (NHI) was alarmed due to the increase in the number of deaths among babies each year.

Dr. Lulu Bravo, executive director of NHI said in the recently held health forum in Quezon City, that the number of deaths among babies already reached 82,000 each year. This report was released by the “The Philippine Child Survival Strategy Work” of Department of Health (DOH) last year 2007.

Base on the report, 52 babies from rural areas and 30 from the urban areas dies for every 1,000 babies that are born.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Children’s Fund immediately think of a strategy to solve the increasing number of death among babies by giving micronutrients, proper care to newborn, breastfeeding and complementary feeding.

Bravo also said that our country is already way behind in giving new vaccines that were needed by babies.  This is because the DOH was also not able to give new vaccine against “Rubella Virus” or german measles, “Rota Virus” at “Haemophilus Influenza Type B (HIB) which is the leading cause of death among infants.

Common Vaccines that are given in Health Centers are BCG against tuberculosis (TB); DPT against diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus; OPV against polio; Hepa-B and AMV against measles.

TB, measles, diarrhea, infections, pneumonia and malnutrition remains a threat in the health of infants.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

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