By Godfred A. Polkuu
Bolgatanga, March 31, GNA – The Ghana Health Service (GHS) in the Upper East Region has recorded a decline in maternal deaths from 43 in 2021 to 27 in 2022.
The reduction represents institutional maternal mortality ratio of 65 deaths per 100,000 live births for 2022 as against 98 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2021.
It also shows a 91.7 per cent performance over that of 2021, with institutional mortality ratio target of 125 per 100,000 live births.
Dr Emmanuel Kofi Dzotsi, the Regional Director of the GHS, revealed this at the 2022 annual performance review meeting of the Service in Bolgatanga on the theme: “The role of quality data in improving service delivery outcomes.”
He attributed the causes of the deaths to haemorrhage that was bleeding and eclampsia, also known as high blood pressure in pregnancy.
“When we did the audit of those maternal deaths, those were the two key major findings that contributed to the deaths,” he said.
He said major interventions including community follow-ups on pregnant women were initiated by midwives and community health nurses to identify all pregnant women in the respective Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) zones and encourage regular Ante-Natal Clinics (ANC) visits.
Dr Dzotsi noted that anaemia in pregnancy was high in the Region, hence pregnant women who attended ANC were educated on diet to prevent any form of complications during childbirth.
On still births, the Director indicated that there was also a reduction in institutional still birth rate from 14.0 per cent in 2021 to 11.0 per cent in 2022, which was below the national target of 11.5 per cent.
He reminded the public that HIV and AIDS were still prevalent, but due to better treatment and care, infected persons were able to live longer and healthier than before and called for more efforts to prevent new infections.
The region recorded a decline in new HIV infections from 1,214 in 2021 to 921 in 2022 and is working hard towards a further reduction in the ensuing years.
“The percentage of mother-to-child transmission of HIV also reduced from 6.8 per cent in 2021 to 5.9 per cent in 2022,” Dr Dzotsi said.
Again, Tuberculosis (TB) case notification rate increased from 47.0 per cent in 2021 to 50.2 per cent in 2022, and likewise, TB treatment success rate from 93 per cent in 2021 to 96.1 per cent in 2022.
“The number of people dying from TB reduced from 5.1 per cent in 2021 to two percent in 2022,” he said.
The Region’s record in malaria under-five case fatality rate of 0.03 per cent was among the first three best in the country, he added.
Dr Dzotsi thanked health professionals and stakeholders for the central role they played to consolidate the regional health delivery efforts.
GNA