Paediatricians express concern over Uganda's alarming child mortality rate

Paediatricians have expressed concern over the rising rate of mortality of new born babies in the country noting that statistics show that Uganda’s infant mortality rate stands at 39 % due to several factors.

The paediatricians are now rooting for specialised neonatal training to curb this infant mortality.

The call was made on Friday as paediatrics marked 60 years of service to the country.

According to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics health statistics report, 43 neonatal deaths are recorded in Uganda for every one thousand live births.

Dr. Ezekiel Mupere, the head of Makerere Paediatric Department attributed these deaths to the poor handling of these newly born babies at the stage of birth.

Dr. Joyce Kambugu, the head of children department at the Uganda Cancer Institute said cancer in children was also contributing to the rising number of child deaths.

She said a number of children diagnosed with cancer rose from 250 in 2012 to 600 in 2018.

She said the good news is that cancer in children is entirely treatable.

“The types of cancer in children are completely different from the types of cancer in adults. They multiply very rapidly and that means that the faster they multiply the quicker they take up anti-cancer drugs,"she said.

.She said the move is to establish designated paediatric centre of the excellence at the cancer institute.

Kambugu said that in the meantime the newly established Mulago specialised women and neonatal hospital  shall step up it's capacity to handle all women and children related issues.

The minister of Health Dr. Ruth Jane Aceng supported the move for specialised training noting that it’s the way to go in terms of advancing health care services in Uganda.