GENEVA, May 21 (KUNA) -- Kuwait called here on Friday for increasing investments in the field of care of newborns and pregnant women to reduce the death rate in East Mediterranean countries, which stand at 40 percent.
Director of the Kuwaiti Health Minister's technical office Dr. Rashid Al-Ameeri said, on behalf of the East Mediterranean countries group at the General Assembly of the World Health Organization (WHO), that the death rate of newborns and pregnant women increased, although health coverage in the region increased from 28 percent in 1990 to 66.5 in 2009 and medical supervision of child deliveries hiked from 36 percent to 60 percent in the same period.
Birth defects were the reason for nine percent of deaths among newborns, he said, adding that it was significant to take serious steps to deal with that phenomenon.
He demanded increasing health awareness among people regarding child deliveries, the marriage of relatives to each other, the effects of drinking and smoking on health, late pregnancy, contagious diseases, and the importance of getting regular medical and health care during the pregnancy, delivery, and the period of breast-feeding.
There is a need for medical and social care programs, especially for newborns and children with birth defects, training people to deal with them, and providing incomes for their families he stressed.
Al-Ameeri told KUNA that a program was launched in Kuwait to monitor and follow up the issues of newborns in cooperation with the genetic diseases center.
The program provides specialized studies and advice to families, he pointed out, and the center also provides medical treatment to newborns with birth defects.
He said that Kuwait issued a law that demanded people planning to get married to undergo medical screening, adding that training courses were held to spread health awareness among mothers. - Kuna