PESHAWAR, April 19: Around 280,000 newborns die each year in Pakistan, which has the eighth highest newborn mortality rate in the world, it was said at a symposium here on Saturday.

The symposium on “Opportunities for Newborn Health” was organised by Save the Children on the occasion of launching of the “Advisory and Advocacy Network for Newborns in Pakistan”.

NWFP Health Minister Zahir Ali Shah was the chief guest on the occasion. He cited an Urdu saying “Bachay qaom ka mustaqbil hain” (children are the future of the nation) and praised Save the Children’s work on the issue of newborn survival. He said it was a high priority issue because approximately 280,000 newborns died each year in the country.

Pakistan had the eight highest newborn mortality rate in the world after Liberia, Ivory Coast, Iraq, Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, Angola and Mali -- mostly countries that had faced prolonged civil wars, said Dr Amanullah Khan, director of health for Save the Children’s Pakistan Country Office.

“Even though infant mortality has decreased in the last three decades, newborn mortality has remained constant. This is because child survival programmes have mostly focused on preventing pneumonia, diarrhoea and vaccine preventable diseases, which are main causes of infant death, but not in the first month of life,” he said.

The Advisory and Advocacy Network for Newborns will focus exclusively on newborns, which account for 69 per cent of infant deaths.

Country Director of Save the Children Michael McGrath said the organisation’s Saving Newborn Lives Initiative worked in 18 countries around the world to pioneer interventions on newborns health. He said his organisation had brought this global expertise on newborns to Pakistan.

The NGO works in all the four provinces of the country to build the capacity of government health systems and mobilise communities to save newborns and their mothers. “Our partnership with the government at all levels has been essential to the success and sustainability of the Save the Children’s work to bring lasting positive change to children in Pakistan,” Mr McGrath said.

CONFERENCE: Speaking at the 19th International Biennial Paediatric Conference organised by the Pakistan Paediatric Association at a local hotel the other day, experts urged the government to provide heath facilities at the grassroots level to reduce infant mortality rate.

Provincial president of Pakistan Paediatric Association Dr Ghulam Mohiuddin said the ratio of infectious diseases among children in Pakistan was higher than other developing countries in the region, adding the diseases were preventable but more money was needed to be invested in the health sector.

He said indicators regarding children’s health in the country were not satisfactory and a lot of work was needed to be done.