Life desk :Babies around the world face a lot of risks to their health: pneumonia, diarrhea and malaria, to name a few. But it turns out that no single infectious disease takes a greater toll than the simple fact of being born premature.Premature birth is now the single largest cause of death among babies and young children. Every year, 1.09 million children under age 5 die due to health complications that stem from being born before week 37 of pregnancy (a 40-week pregnancy is considered full-term).For the first time in history, the complications of preterm birth outrank all other causes as the world’s number one killer of young children.Of the estimated 6.3 million deaths of children under the age of five in 2013, complications from preterm births accounted for nearly 1.1 million deaths, according to new findings published in The Lancet by a research team coordinated by Robert Black, M.D, of the Johns Hopkins Blomberg school of Public Health, together with world Health Organization and London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.Specifically, direct complications from preterm births accounted for 965,000 deaths during the first 28 days of life, with an additional 125,000 deaths between the ages of one month and five years. Other main causes for young child deaths include pneumonia which killed 935,000 children under -five.Prematurity is also a major health challenge for Bangladesh. 14 of our 100 babies born prematurely in Bangladesh, more than the global average which is 10 out of 100 babies! Bangladesh is among the 10 countries which is highest numbers of children under-five dying from preterm birth complication. Preterm birth complications are the leading cause of death in newborns and accounts for 45% of all the newborn deaths in Bangladesh which was 36% in 2000. These facts should indicate an urgent call for concerted action. This is essential in order to progress on the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) for child survival by 2015 and beyond, since globally 40% of under-five deaths are in newborns (in Bangladesh 60% of under-five deaths are in newborns), and it will also give added value to maternal health (MDG 5) investments.Although preterm birth has a significant impact on child mortality and morbidity, it hasn’t received the attention it deserves. Thus, to create awareness about prematurity highlighting the burden of preterm birth, informing on simple, proven cost-effective solutions to save preterm lives, provide care for preterm babies, World Prematurity day is observed on November 17 every year since 2011. In order to discuss the scenario of Bangladesh, strategies for prevention and treatment of prematurity, we have arranged this roundtable discussion on occasion of World Prematurity Day which was observed on Monday.Among the interventions – Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC), antenatal steroid injections (which indicated), antiseptic cream to prevent cord infection and antibiotics to fight infections are particularly important.Speakers said that prematurity continues to emerge as one of the biggest health challenges of the time, although we have proven cost-effective solutions. Simple methods such as warmth, breastfeeding support, basic care for preventing infections and KMC could reduce the deaths by over three-quarters, even without the availability of costly neonatal intensive care.In KMC, mothers serve as human incubators for their newborns where the infant is held skin-to-skin on the mother’s chest to keep warm. This low cost, highly effective technique has the potential to save the millions of babies born too soon and also reduce the need of costly incubators. But the service is not available throughout Bangladesh and thus, it is crucial to make it available.Antenatal steroid injection is called corticosteroid is low cost drug that helps develop immature fetal lungs and prevent respiratory problems and is particularly indicated for women before 34 weeks of pregnancy. To prevent infection in newborn, a simple antiseptic name Chlorhexidine (7.1%) application on umbilical cord and simple low cost antibiotic can reduce neonatal infection and mortality significantly.In order to help reduce preterm birth rates, family planning and increased empowerment of women, especially adolescents, plus improved quality of care before, between and during pregnancy, strategic investment in innovation and research are also crucial.
