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| Azad launches "Navjaat Shishu Suraksha Karyakram" for new born |
| Press Trust of India / Jaipur Sep 15, 2009, 14:50 IST |
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Union Health Minister Gulam Nabi Azad today launched a nationwide "Navjaat Shishu Suraksha Karyakram" (NSSK) aimed at reducing the Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) from 55 to 30 by the year 2012.
Though the IMR in India had declined from 60 in 2003 to 55 in 2007, the NSSK would enable the paramedical staff to save new born child and mother at various health centres across the country, Azad told the inaugural function here.
As per a 2007 WHO statistics, India accounted for 2.2 million, maximum, of the 9.2 million under-five child deaths in the world.
Of the nearly 26 million infants born each year, 0.9 million die before completing the first four weeks of life, and 1.6 million die before reaching the first birthday, Azad said quoting the WHO stats.
While two-third of the neo-natal deaths occurred in the first week of life, two-third of those took place within the first 24 hours due to non-availability of delivery institutions in villages and smaller towns, he said adding the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MHFW) would earmark a budgetary support for training and infrastructure development.
Asserting that the principal causes of neonatal deaths, included infection, complications related to premature birth, pneumonia, diarrhoea and measles, he said, the NSSK aims at addressing interventions of care at birth like prevention of hypothermia and infection, and basic newborn resuscitation.
He called upon the medical fraternity to take up the programme as a mission so that IMR could be reduced. Azad said that doctors and paramedical staff, specially from backward states like Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir and north-eastern states, would be given special training under the scheme.
On the infrastructure development, he said, a 12-bed special newborn unit would be opened in each district, 4-bed stabilisation unit in sub-districts and a newborn corner facility in the existing hospitals at primary health centres.
Earlier in the day, he launched a month-long "Swasthya Chetna Yatra" at sub-urban Vatika town, 30 kms from here, for 9,000 gram panchayats organised by the Rajasthan Government to provide medical care to villagers at door steps.
Speaking on the occasion, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said after the yatra, a mega health camp would be organised in the month of November-December for patients of chronic illness in the villages.
The camps would be organised under the supervision of teams of general physicians and specialist doctors who would refer the patients to district or city hospitals for free treatment.
This would be an innovative drive to provide the best health and medical care to at least 40 lakh people of the state living in villages, the Chief Minister said.
The two ministers also launched a number of web-sites on NSSK, Chief Minister's BPL Jeevan Raksha Kosh Monitoring system, and Pregnancy, Child Tracking and Health Management System.
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