WUNRN
Australia Seeks
Focus on Pacific Maternal Deaths |
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Radaus 13
November 2008 CANBERA, Australia ----- The Australian Government's international development chief says overcoming the Pacific's high maternal mortality rate must become a priority, Radio Australia reports . In a new report, the United Nations Population Fund said the number of women in the Pacific dying in childbirth has soared in the past year. In Papua New Guinea, the number has grown by 56 per cent. Australia’s parliamentary secretary for International Development Assistance, Bob McMullan, said the UN agency's numbers may not tell the whole story. He said Australia needs to rethink its aid strategy to ensure women, such as those in PNG , are getting the care they need. “Too many women have the birth of their children without qualified attendance and it's a difficult thing because much of the country is inaccessible,” he said. “But it has to be a priority we cannot allow so many women to be put at such risk and such a high maternal mortality rate.” Meanwhile, the United Nations children's agency said not one Pacific island nation would meet the millennium goal of cutting the death rate of children under five by 2015. In a new report, UNICEF said for every one thousand births in Papua New Guinea, the Federated States of Micronesia( FSM) , Kiribati, the Marshall Islands and Solomon Islands, 40 children under the age of five are dying. Solomon Islands has cut its rate from 121 per thousand to 73 in the past 16 years, but UNICEF said that's not good enough. The UN agency report also said Papua New Guinea has inadequate and deteriorating health infrastructure and it says the situation is worse than it was in 1990. It said just 39 per cent of PNG's population has access to improved drinking-water sources - the lowest rate in the world and puts the country equal last with Afghanistan. The report concludes that the Pacific Islands region as a whole has stalled in its efforts to improve child survival. |
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Australia
Seeks Focus on Pacific Maternal Deaths |
13/11/2008 |
The Australian government's international development
chief says overcoming the Pacific's high maternal mortality rate must become a
priority.
In a new report, the UN Population fund says the number of
women in the Pacific dying in childbirth has soared in the past year.
In Papua New Guinea, the number has grown by 56 per cent.
Australia's parliamentary secretary for International
Development Assistance, Bob McMullan, says the UN agency's numbers may not tell
the whole story.
He says Australia needs to rethink its aid strategy to
ensure women, such as those in PNG , are getting the care they need.
"Too many women have the birth of their children
without qualilfied attendance and it's a difficult thing because much of the
country is inaccessible," he said.
"But it has to be a priority we cannot allow so many
women to be put at such risk and such a high maternal mortality rate."
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