Brazzaville/Berlin, 11 October 2010 - The WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Luis Sambo has pointed out that, the key to attaining the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) on reducing child deaths is by reaching every newborn and child with a set of priority interventions. These include appropriate breast feeding and infant and young child feeding practices; prevention of vaccine preventable diseases through effective immunization and prevention and management of common childhood illnesses such as pneumonia, diarrhoea, malaria, malnutrition and HIV infection.

He made these remarks when addressing delegates at the World Health Summit, which is taking place in Berlin, Germany from 11-13 October 2010.

Speaking on the theme ‘Accelerating towards Achieving the Health MDGs 4 and 5’, the Regional Director revealed that interventions which can be routinely scheduled and delivered, such as immunization, have much higher coverage than those that rely on 24-hour availability of clinical services such as care of sick children.

Referring to access to health care technologies, Dr Sambo said:” New vaccines such as rotavirus and pneumococcal conjugate vaccines that could significantly reduce under five morbidity and mortality are not yet affordable to those who need them most. An initiative to improve access to such vaccines could significantly contribute to accelerating the pace towards MDG4”.

With regards to maternal mortality, the Regional Director told the delegates that proven cost effective interventions exist and vast majority of maternal deaths could be averted if every woman had access to them. He emphasized the importance of individuals, families and community awareness and participation in maternal and newborn health.

Dr Sambo also underscored the need to strengthen national health systems as the key mechanism to scale up the delivery of maternal and child health interventions.

He said: “The renewed focus on Primary Health Care with its principles and values of social justice, equity, solidarity, effective community participation and multi-sectoral action, offers a sustainable approach to redesign national health systems in a flexible manner to respond to maternal and child health needs”.

“There is also the need to ensure that other areas of government policy and legislation promotes the health of mothers and children’, he stressed.

The Regional Director noted the linkages between the Millennium Development Goals and highlighted the impact of MDGs 1, 6 and 7 on MDGs 4 and 5. He said there is evidence that malnutrition increases the risk of maternal and child mortality. Equally progress on MDG 6 on Malaria, HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis will have a positive impact on maternal and child health.

Regarding MDG 7, Dr Sambo observed that the availability of improved drinking water and sanitation will contribute towards the reduction of incidence and prevalence of childhood illnesses.

While recognising that health is now higher in the development agenda, the Regional Director called for stronger leadership and commitment in health that should be translated into increased resources to enable the scaling up of priority health interventions within strengthened health systems.

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