By Samira Larbie
Accra, May 05, GNA – The Paediatric Society of Ghana (PSG) has launched the 2023 “Newborn Jaundice Awareness Month” with a call on parents to send their yellow baby to the hospital early to prevent death and neurological complications.
Yellow Month is aimed at creating nationwide awareness of preventing disability and death in babies resulting from newborn jaundice.
The virtual launch of the 2023 national awareness month is on the theme: “Spot the Yellow; Stop Disability and Death.”
Jaundice is the yellowish discoloration of the skin and/or conjunctiva that is from the accumulation of unconjugated bilirubin in the blood.
Neonatal jaundice, however, is when jaundice appears in the first 28 days of birth and is classified into physiological and pathological jaundice.
Factors that increase the risk of severe neonatal jaundice include acute haemolysis, preterm delivery, prolonged labour, premature rupture of the membrane, bruises and cephalohematoma, and neonatal asphyxia.
Globally, jaundice affects about half of full-term newborns and 80 per cent of preterm newborns.
Dr Paulina Clara Appiah, the Deputy Director of Public Health, Bono East Region, who launched the awareness month commended the PSG for leading advocacy and awareness creation of these very serious health consequences in the country.
She said physiological jaundice is mild, self-limiting that usually occurs 36 hours after birth, and resolves without treatment, while the more severe form called pathological jaundice may appear within 24 hours of birth or later depending upon the cause.
“As such, failure to identify and treat severe neonatal jaundice can result in life-threatening neurological complications which imposes a substantial burden on health care resources, especially in resource-limited settings such as ours.
“You may have heard of newborns leaving hospitals after birth only to have them returned to the hospital with severe jaundice and newborns at home being sun-bathed,” she added
Dr Appiah revealed that a systematic review and meta-analysis on the burden of severe neonatal jaundice in 2017 by Slusher et al, indicated that the incidence of severe neonatal jaundice is reported to be highest in the Africa region, with 667.8 per 10 000 live births.
This is followed by 251.3 per 10, 000 in Southeast Asia, Americas 4.4 per/10,000 live births, and 3.7/per 10,000 live births in Europe.
“In this study, 416 articles were identified but only 21 articles reported population-based estimates to show the burden of severe neonatal jaundice, adding that, the limited data impedes the drive for more investments in neonatal jaundice especially in resource constraint settings.
The Public Health Specialist, however, said, a report from St. Elizabeth Hospital in Ahafo, a referral center revealed that 49.8 per cent of admitted cases had neonatal jaundice as one of their diagnoses even though other reports have lower proportions of 9.7 per cent.
Dr Appiah said despite the challenges. neonatal infection could be prevented, provided there was timely and appropriate management, and urged parents to report to the facility early.
She outlined that during this one month, they would use all communication channels available including facility engagement at service provision points, radio, TV, social media, and community engagement among others.
Health workers would, including community health workers, be trained and provided with adequate equipment for the diagnosis and treatment, she said.
Dr Appiah urged the PSG to strongly advocate for questions about neonatal jaundice to be included in the Demographic and Health Survey to enable it to know the burden for planning and decision-making purposes and to aid in resource allocation.
She also called for the need to do some triangulation of data from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit to validate the report which currently appears to be under-reported in Midwife Form A to enable it to address severe neonatal jaundice.
Participants aside from the launch were taken through an overview of neonatal jaundice, prolonged jaundice, and surgical management of neonatal jaundice.
GNA