DUSHANBE, November 17, Asia-Plus — Mother and child health protection is a topical issue and one of priorities of activity of the Tajik government.
Speaking at a media-briefing in Dushanbe on November 15, Sobir Qurbonov, health program coordinator, UNICEF CO Tajikistan, said that Tajikistan has made a certain progress in this direction.
The media-briefing was dedicated to problems of maternal and infant mortality in Tajikistan.
Sobir Qurbonov noted that surveys conducted by UNICEF CO in Tajikistan show that in 2000, the infant mortality rate in the country was at 126 per 1,000 live births, while in 2005, it was at 65 per 1,000 live births.
The mortality rate depends not only on serviceability but also on quality of services, Sobir Qurbonov said.
In the meantime, Shamsiddin Qurbonov, the head of department for mother and child protection services and reproductive health of the Ministry of Health (MoH) said that the maternal and infant mortality rates were high in other Central Asian countries as well. However, official data provided by them is lower, according to him.
“Thus Uzbek official data shows that infant mortality rate in Uzbekistan is at 30 per 1,000 live births, while the results of international surveys say that it is 49 per 1,000 live births,” the MoH official said.
In Tajikistan, the official data also shows that the infant mortality rate in the country is at 17 per 1,000 live births, while according to neutral survey it is at 65 per 1,000 birth lives.
According to the MoH official, one of reasons for high infant mortality rate in the country is improper child-car practices awareness among parents. “Another factor that impedes tackling this problem is shortage of finance,” said Qurbonov, “Fund provided for tackling this problem are insufficient.”
Qurbonov called on media to assist in raising population’s awareness of these issues.
