Georgetown: Minister of Health Dr. Bheri Ramsarran has noted that while some Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have already been achieved by Guyana, the issue of maternal death is a fragile and underlying one when dealing with small numbers. Guyana’s work towards the MDG relating to maternal mortality and child mortality will hopefully see that it is achieved by 2015.
Referring to recent cases of maternal deaths, the Health Minister stated, “The investigation of any maternal death is treated by the Ministry and the current administration as a national tragedy, so we are investigating what transpired. This is not the first unfortunate incident that is happening and there will be a full investigation and the Chief Medical Officer has been stern with the institution to meet the deadline of the investigations.”
Minister Ramsaran explained that Cuban trained Guyanese doctors who were infused into the medical system have been trained in weak areas such as alarm, advances in labour room risk management and obstetric emergencies. While some of these doctors have been sent to the Department of Internal Medicine which was understaffed, some were also sent to the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
Over the years, the Ministry of Health has been making much needed interventions towards ensuring Guyanese women, countrywide, experience safe motherhood before, during and after childbirth.
Since the launch of the MDGs there has been significant progress with respect to both child health and mortality and maternal health and mortality. Guyana identified MDGs 4 and 5 as the goals for prioritisation and towards this end the maternal, neonatal and child health strategy 2011-2020 was developed.
Some of the achievements that have occurred are geared towards improving safe motherhood. These include the success of the immunisation programme which has 90 percent coverage, the introduction of new antigens, prevention of Mother to Child Transmission, enhanced training for healthcare providers and the introduction of maternal waiting rooms for mothers who live in far-flung villages.
Guyana’s goals and targets are to reduce the Maternal Mortality Ratio from 320 per 100,000 in 1991 to less than 80 per 100,000 by 2015, reduce under 5 mortality rate from 75 per 1000 in 1990 to less than 20 per 1000 by 2015, reduce infant mortality rate from 45 per 1000 from 1990 to less than 16 per 1,000 by 2015 and reduce Mother To Child Transmission (MTCT) of HIV prevalence from 7.1 percent in 2001 to less than 2 percent by 2015.
MDG 4 seeks to reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under five mortality rate. There has been some achievement in this regard, including scaling downward of child mortality by 50 percent in the past decade, and in Guyana’s progress report 2011, the country has already met the target of reducing the under five mortality rate by two- thirds, and aims to further improve its record of reducing child mortality.
Other achievements were had in the areas of immunisation, nutrition and reduction of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV and Integrated Management of Childhood Illness.
In relation to MDG 5: Improving Maternal Health, the target is to reduce the maternal mortality ratio by three – quarters by 2015. According to the MDG Progress Report 2011, Guyana has the potential to meet the MDG target of reducing the maternal mortality ratio by three-quarters and has a mixed outlook on the target to achieve universal access to reproductive health.
The MDGs were set at the 2000 Millennium Summit to accelerate global progress in development.
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