Push further on global health
Amid the bloodshed of the Middle East and economic struggles around the globe, progress goes unnoticed, often because it comes in the form of things that do not happen, the progress of prevention.
One overlooked triumph that ought to be celebrated – and could with federal legislation made lasting – is the world’s success in reducing the under-5 mortality rate. Since 1990, it has dropped by half. The gains have come through close focus on eliminating preventable deaths through prenatal care, medical assistance at delivery, vaccinations and steps as simple as distributing mosquito nets to reduce malaria.
But the progress is far from complete. Nearly 6 million children under the age of 5 die annually from a preventable or treatable cause. Every day, 800 women die from complications related to pregnancy or childbirth.
Legislation before Congress seeks to advance the progress against preventable or treatable conditions that lead to early childhood and maternal deaths and supports a goal of ending all such deaths by 2035. The legislation is H.R. 3706, the Reach Every Mother and Child Act of 2015.
The bill ties funding through the U.S. Agency for International Development to a requirement that receiving countries follow a comprehensive strategy of universally proven, cost-effective methods to increase maternal and child survival.
The legislation introduced by Rep. David Reichert (R-Wash.) has 15 co-sponsors, seven Republicans and eight Democrats, but none from North Carolina. That should change. It was not so long ago that North Carolina had its own problem with a high percentage of newborns and mothers dying from preventable causes. North Carolina had the highest infant mortality rate in the nation in 1988. Since then, simple but effective steps applied statewide reduced that rate by 44 percent.
The same has happened in poor nations, but the rates are still high. In Uganda, for instance, the rate is 10 times the U.S. rate.
Members of RESULTS, a nonprofit advocacy organization that works to end poverty, recently came through North Carolina seeking support for the legislation. They were joined by Dr. Rebecca Nantanda, a pediatrician from Uganda, who told how medical care saved her baby after the umbilical cord wrapped around the baby’s neck during delivery.
“I was able to have a live baby, and I was able to survive,” she said, “but it could have been different for someone who did not have access to services.”
U.S. Rep. Renee Ellmers, a former nurse who has visited Guatemala with the aid group CARE, knows the value of preventive care. She could lead North Carolina’s House delegation in supporting this legislation. In the Senate, where there is a companion bill, North Carolina’s Richard Burr has also visited Africa and favors global health initiatives. The Reach Every Mother and Child Act needs and deserves his support.
This story was originally published November 1, 2015 at 11:59 AM with the headline "Push further on global health."