The latest estimate is that more than three million babies die each year within the first month of life. A report says this is down from 4.6 million deaths in two thousand nine. Still, newborn babies represent about forty percent of all deaths in children under five years old. Experts say five countries have the lowest newborn survival rates: India, Nigeria, Pakistan, China and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
India has one-fourth of all deaths within the first four weeks after birth. The report is from the private humanitarian group Save the Children and the World Health Organization. Dr. Joy Lawn from Save the Children says simple actions can help save lives. “Not delivering the baby onto a dirty surface, drying the baby, keeping the baby warm and feeding the baby straight away resulted almost in a halving of the newborn deaths in a very rural area in India.”Dr. Lawn says having trained medical workers present could also save many babies and mothers. “If you had the health workers with the right equipment and the right drugs in these settings, definitely maternal deaths, neonatal deaths, child deaths, could be halved.”And the equipment does not have to be complex.
A student team at Rice University in Houston, Texas, developed a low-cost device to assist newborns with breathing problems. The device is called infantAIR. The researchers plan to test it at a hospital in Malawi, then develop training programs for nurses and hospital technicians.The World Health Organization estimates that about fifteen hundred pregnant women die each day. Millions more suffer infections or injuries from pregnancy and childbirth. A recent conference in Washington presented winning ideas in a competition called “Saving Lives at Birth.” The top honors went to Dr. Michelle McIntosh and her team at Monash University in Australia. They plan to manufacture a dry powder containing the drug oxytocin. Oxytocin reduces the bleeding after birth that causes twenty-five percent of all maternal deaths. The powder would be used in a spray that the mother could inhale into her lungs.
The contest organizers included the US Agency for International Development and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. There is evidence that programs to reduce newborn deaths are starting to make progress, especially in parts of South Asia. But progress is slower in Africa. The new report says Africa could need more than one hundred fifty years to reach the current survival rates in the United States or Britain.For VOA Special English, I’m Alex Villarreal.
Words in This Story
estimate – n. a guess of what the size, value, amount, cost, etc. of something might be
survival – n. the fact of a person, organization, etc. continuing to live or exist
humanitarian – adj, n. (a person who is) involved in or connected with improving people’s lives and reducing suffering
deliver – v. to give, direct, or aim something
rural – adj. in or from the countryside
maternal – adj. behaving or feeling in the way that a mother does towards her child, especially in a kind, loving way
neonatal – adj. of or for babies that were born recently
halve – v. to reduce something by half or divide something into two equal pieces
inhale – v. to breathe air, smoke, or gas into your lungs
contest – n. a competition to do better than other people, usually in which prizes are given
Luyện nghe bản tin tiếng Anh y khoa thông qua bản tin VOA – special English, Health Report.
Xem thêm:
>>Luyện nghe bản tin tiếng Anh y khoa VOA 25
Anh Văn Y Khoa DR.DUY
https://facebook.com/anhvanyds
#anhvanyds #tienganhykhoa #anhvanykhoadrduy
Để lại một phản hồi Hủy