Health
Every two minutes one woman dies during pregnancy, childbirth: UN
A woman dies every two minutes due to pregnancy or childbirth complications, despite maternal mortality rates dropping by a third in 20 years, the United Nations said Thursday.
Rates fell significantly between 2000 and 2015 but largely stagnated between 2016 and 2020 — and in some regions have even reversed, the UN said.
The overall maternal mortality rate dropped by 34.3 percent over a 20-year period — from 339 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in 2000 to 223 maternal deaths in 2020, according to a report by the World Health Organization and other UN agencies.
Nonetheless, that means nearly 800 women died per day in 2020 — or around one every two minutes.
Belarus recorded the biggest decline — down 95.5 percent — while Venezuela saw the highest increase. Between 2000 and 2015, the biggest rise was in the United States.
“While pregnancy should be a time of immense hope and a positive experience for all women, it is tragically still a shockingly dangerous experience for millions around the world,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“These new statistics reveal the urgent need to ensure every woman and girl has access to critical health services… and that they can fully exercise their reproductive rights.”
The report found that between 2016 and 2020, maternal mortality rates dropped in only two of the eight UN regions: in Australia and New Zealand by 35 percent, and in Central and Southern Asia by 16 percent.
The rate went up in Europe and Northern America by 17 percent, and in Latin America and the Caribbean by 15 percent. Elsewhere, it stagnated.
The two European countries witnessing “significant increases” are Greece and Cyprus, the report’s author Jenny Cresswell told journalists.
Maternal deaths remain largely concentrated in the world’s poorest regions and in conflict-affected countries.
Around 70 percent of those deaths recorded in 2020 were in sub-Saharan Africa, where the rate is “136 times bigger” than in Australia and New Zealand, Cresswell said.
In Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria and Yemen — all facing severe humanitarian crises — rates were more than twice the global average.
Severe bleeding, infections, complications from unsafe abortions and underlying conditions such as HIV/AIDS are among the leading causes of death, the report said — which are all largely preventable and treatable.
The WHO said it was “critical” that women had control over their reproductive health — particularly about if and when to have children, so that they can plan and space childbearing to protect their health.
Natalia Kanem, head of the UN Population Fund, said the rate of women “needlessly” dying was “unconscionable.”
“We can and must do better by urgently investing in family planning and filling the global shortage of 900,000 midwives,” she said.
While the report covers data up to 2020, the WHO’s Anshu Banerjee told journalists that the statistics since then look bleak, due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the economic crisis.
Acting Minister of Public Health Qalandar Ebad, in a meeting with Azerbaijan’s ambassador, Ilham Mohammadov, called for the country’s assistance in improving the capacity of Afghanistan’s health workers.
The two sides also discussed cooperation in the health sector, capacity building of Afghan health workers, and Azerbaijan’s role in the health sector and other issues, according to a statement released by the Public Health Ministry.
Azerbaijan’s envoy said that his country seeks to cooperate with Afghanistan in a sustainable manner in the field of health.
In other news, the foundation stone for the construction of oxygen production facility was laid at the Indira Gandhi children hospital in Kabul.
Officials of the Ministry of Public Health said that the facility will be built with the financial and technical assistance of the World Health Organization, and with the capacity to produce 200 cylinders of oxygen daily to meet not only the needs of the hospital, but also other health facilities.
Balkh Public Health Department officials say there has been a significant increase in the number of patients with cancer in the province.
“In 1401, about 2,613 OPD (out patient department) cases were registered with us. In 1402, these figures were 4,912 cases,” said Ehsanullah Kaliwal, the head of the oncology department at Balkh Regional Hospital.
Some doctors say genetic factors, environmental pollution, arbitrary use of medicines, and excessive consumption of meat were reasons for the sharp increase.
One doctor said cancer was also hereditry.
However, a large percentage of cancer patients in Balkh have stomach cancer. Many of them have appealed for the government to improve treatment facilities.
According to health officials, in the first month of this solar year (April), 423 cancer patients visited this hospital for treatment.
Based on last year’s data, 52 percent of people with mental disorders in Afghanistan are women, the Ministry of Public Health said.
However, after the Islamic Emirate took over the country and with the improvement of nationwide security and the provision of better health services, mental disorders have decreased, the ministry said.
“Overall, the mental security of men and women in Afghanistan is not ensured and their mental security is disturbed. According to the figures shared with us, in 2023, 52 percent of the visitors for mental disorders were women,” said Sharaft Zaman Amarkhil, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Public Health.
“Generally speaking, we can say that compared to the past, the instances of mental illnesses have decreased,” he added.
People suffering mental disorders mostly refuse to share their problem, willingly or unwillingly.
“There are many problems at home; We are poor. I finished school, but didn’t find any job,” Ansar, a mentally ill person, said.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), half of Afghanistan’s population suffers from mental distress.
Factors such as unemployment, poverty, domestic violence, ban on girls’ and women’s education and work, and drugs are said to be key contributors to mental distress.
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