Leaving no one behind

Abstract

The African continent continues to be faced with myriad of challenges, particularly in the public health sector. A few figures exemplify the magnitude of the problem. Infant and maternal mortality remains stubbornly high, compared to other regions of the world. According to the Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation [1-2], the risk of a child dying before completing the first year of age was highest in the WHO African Region (55 per 1000 live births), over five times higher than that in the WHO European Region (10 per 1000 live births). Similarly, every day about 800 women die due to complications of pregnancy and child birth. Of the 800 daily maternal deaths, 500 occur in sub-Saharan Africa and 190 in Southern Asia, compared to 6 in developed countries. The risk of a woman in a developing country dying from a maternal-related cause during her lifetime is about 23 times higher compared to a woman living in a developed country