Arua District Registers Improved Preterm babies survival

Health authorities in Arua district in West Nile Region have reported an improvement of preterm babies’ survival.

Senior Consultant Gynecologist at Arua Referral hospital Emmanuel Odar said that for at least two quarters, they have picked the 90% mark for survival of the preterm babies.

‘’We think we can do better, because our target was 95, so those who are born tired need respiration support. Those ones, sometimes they suffer brain injury, and the outcome can be so severe, so their survival keeps declining. The best survival for those is prevention, and that is an area we continue to encourage, that to improve our care, that mothers come to our facilities in time and access optimum care’’ Dr. Odar stated.

‘’We also received support in terms of equipment, in terms of training, in terms of commodities for nutrition. The nutritionist will tell you that we are embarking on prevention. Also in terms of nutrition care, there's the community Maternal Infant and young child and adolescent nutrition initiative through care groups, and we are already filling this. You will see indeed the admission rates for severe acute malnutrition are coming down’’ Dr. Odar stated during a media visit organized by UNICEF and the Swedish government on child survival and development work in the West Nile region.

He noted this has been achieved with support from the package that Arua Regional referral hospital have received from UNICEF and Swedish government  in terms of numbers and in terms of the outcome in the health of the population in the region.

He said that ‘’in the previous period, we had a situation where that capacity was limited, and so they would have to refer mothers because they needed a cesarean delivery. But With the empowerment in terms of the equipment, in terms of the training, in terms of the renovation works, I think the trend is going down, and we believe that it will continue to go down. So when that happens, then we can retain our services to offer specialized care.

‘’So some of them are not delivered with us. You do remember I told you that about 1920 who are delivering elsewhere, but we're able to see an increase in delivery in the institutions, and we pray that this continues to grow. Every mother should be delivered under the services of a skilled healthcare worker, and our target is to reach 100%.’’ He added.

He further noted that they have also registered a minimal reduction in maternal mortality partly due to increased surgical operations with 200 being conducted every month, adding that the introduction of the neonatal department has also helped save lives of preterm babies.

Dr. Odar, However said that strides being made are not up to the required speed due to delays by the community to take quick decisions to transport mothers in labour pain to the health facilities.

According to him, poor transportation, teenage pregnancies and late referrals have deterred quick reduction of maternal mortality in the region.

Christine Nabwire, regional nutritionist at Arua regional referral hospital, who oversees 8 districts from Maracha to Pakwachi said that Arua regional referral hospital receives children from various places and also offers nutrition services.

She said the hospital has a nutrition ward which provides care for those patients with severe acute malnutrition complications.

She said that ‘’In the outpatient therapeutic care,  we are giving Feed 75  and Feed 100, and all  these therapeutic feed comes as a donation from UNICEF.  UNICEF is also supporting us in system strengthening where we are training other health workers, it also helps us with mentorship to ensure these malnourished acute children are treated well. It has also helped to implement the Ministry of health community strategy which is Maternal, Infant, young, child and adolescent nutrition’’.

She added that ‘’this nutrition unit is being supported by UNICEF, and all the therapeutic feeds we are getting is support from UNICEF. So it's supporting us with therapeutic feeds. It has also supported us with community structures. They have helped to implement the   Maternal, Infant, young, child and adolescent nutrition (MIYCA), where we are using care group volunteers to reach other households and educate them about nutrition and hygiene and other wash practices. As per now we have formed 68 groups of Maternal, Infant, young, child and adolescent nutrition, the groups. The volunteers and the VHTs we are using in the villages, have helped to refer to these mothers and assess the mother who is pregnant, adolescents, and the children, the young children. And we are seeing there is increased linkage. And you can see it from the how the ward is full because of the linkage from the MIYCN groups that are linking these children who are malnourished as they reach the homesteads. And once they assess that this child is severely acute malnourished, they link them to the facility’’.

 ‘’Today, we are here to celebrate what UNICEF has been able to support in West Nile region, with support from the Embassy of Sweden, all that we are going to talk about today, it's coming because of the generous  support from the Embassy of Sweden, and just to start a little bit as UNICEF, we work really to advocate and protect the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children by supporting the government to address the issues of inequities in health outcomes, working directly with The district local governments that have got the law coverage to tackle all issues of equity by supporting the district's health system strengthening so with the support of Embassy of Sweden, this is what we've been able to do’’  Mystica Acheng, Chief of UNICEF Arua Field Office 

‘’Starting in 2017 I think that was September 2017 with funding from Sweden, a comprehensive package of interventions for the women and children in West Nile region have been supported, just to let you know that this is looking taking into consideration all the programs and the health and when you're looking at the health component, the general health as UNICEF, we use the life cycle approach, right from the neonatal  health, a comprehensive package of support to ensure that the health of children, the newborn care and support the component of child health, adolescent health, maternal health, not forgetting the issues of HIV and AIDS, the struggle to eliminate the spread of HIV and AIDS in the region’’.

’We have seen from the recent statistics that the data is increasing the infection. It's becoming more and worse. Of all the most affected are the adolescents that we all seek to support. So with SIDA support, a number of interventions have been supported, including strengthening the capacity of the district leaders in the management, evidence based prioritization and program monitoring and evaluation.

She said that ‘’We have had some health workers that were deployed in some of the districts, and we are happy to note that with the good gesture by the ministry, by the Embassy of Sweden, some of the health workers that were deployed in the government health facilities, we are happy to note that some of them are being taken up by the government, and they have been integrated in the government system, and facilitated by the government. In addition to that, also increasing demand and participation of communities is a key component that was supported. We also know when we are talking about health, especially primary health care, the importance of community engagement is very key. And we have been able to support this through the rolling of the key family care practices, working with the different community structures, the government structures at different levels, not forgetting at the village level, the VHDs have been core in ensuring that all this support is a success’’.