Wakati CCM imetoa mabango (billboards) zikimuonyesha Rais aliyemaliza muda wake, Jakaya Kikwete, akikumbatia watoto na kina mama huku kukiwa na maneno kama "Watoto Wote ni Wetu," ripoti mpya ya Umoja wa Mataifa ambayo imetoka wiki wiliyopita inaonyesha kuwa watu 14,000 hufa kila mwaka Tanzania kutokana na matatizo ya uzazi. Hii ina maana kuwa hivi sasa Tanzania ina idadi kubwa ya vifo vya wanawake na kina mama kuliko nchi zote za Afrika Mashariki. Hata Rwanda na Burundi zinatushinda.
Hivi tutaendelea kuteseka na kufa mpaka lini chini ya utawala wa Kikwete na CCM?
Hivi tutaendelea kuteseka na kufa mpaka lini chini ya utawala wa Kikwete na CCM?
Nation at risk
NEW UNITED NATIONS REPORT REVEALS THAT TANZANIA
HAS HIGHEST MATERNAL DEATH RATE IN EAST AFRICA
THISDAY REPORTER
Dar es Salaam
TANZANIA is the most dangerous place to give birth in east Africa, with a staggering 14,000 women dying in the country each year from pregnancy-related causes, according to a new United Nations report.
The report states, "Pregnant women still die from four major causes: severe bleeding after childbirth, infections, hypertensive disorders and unsafe abortion."
While maternal mortality fell globally from 540,000 deaths in 1990 to 358,000 in 2008 - a 34 percent decline, Tanzania is still listed as one of the countries with the highest number of deaths of women in the world.
The analysis based on death records, censuses, surveys, and published studies found that Tanzania has the third largest number of deaths of children in Africa after Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
The statistics in the "Trends in Maternal Mortality" report released last week by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Bank, cover the period from 1990 to 2008.
According to the report, of the 358,000 maternal deaths in 2008, majority were from 11 developing countries, including Tanzania. These countries comprised an estimated 65 percent
of the global maternal deaths reported.
By country analysis, India had the largest number of maternal deaths (63,000), followed by Nigeria (50,000), the DRC (19,000), Afghanistan (18,000), Ethiopia (14,000), Pakistan (14,000), Tanzania (14,000), Bangladesh (12,000), Indonesia (10,000), Sudan (9,700), and Kenya (7,900).
The report criticises the Tanzanian government for making "insufficient progress" in efforts towards improving maternal health in the country.
It says the maternal mortality rate (MMR) in Tanzania decreased by just 10 percent between 1990 and 2008.
Tanzania's MMR stood at 880 in 1990 but increased to 920 per 100,000 live births in 1995. In 2000, it remained unchanged, before falling to 860 in 2005 and 790 in 2008.
Experts say the nation still has the highest number of maternal deaths in the world due to both direct obstetric causes and to conditions aggravated by pregnancy or childbirth.
Tanzania's current MMR of 790 is the same as Zimbabwe and Sierra Leone.
The report lists Tanzania among 85 countries lacking reliable registration data.
The UN said though progress in reducing maternal mortality worldwide is impressive, it is less than half of what is needed to achieve Millennium Development Goals (MD) target for reducing maternal deaths by 75 percent between 1990 and 2015.
WHO's Director-General, Dr. Margaret Chan, said: "The global reduction in maternal deaths is encouraging news."
"Countries where women are facing a high risk of death during pregnancy or childbirth are taking measures that are proving effective ... No woman should die due to inadequate access to family planning and to pregnancy and delivery care."
Several reasons are cited for the worldwide reduction in number of maternal deaths, including improvement in health systems to assist pregnant women and increased education of women, raising awareness of the importance of delivering with skilled help.
Around the world, more midwives are also being trained. The proportion of deliveries attended by skilled health personnel rose from 53 percent in 1990 to 63 percent in 2008. The proportion of women who attended a pre-natal clinic at least once during their also rose from 64 percent to 80 percent.
The use of contraceptives by women aged 15-49 also rose: East Asia which experienced the greatest reduction in maternal deaths has a contraceptive prevalence rate of 86 percent. Sub-Saharan Africa, where contraceptives are used by just 22 percent of women, recorded one of the lowest declines of maternal mortality.
Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia still account for 87 percent of global maternal deaths.
"The risk of a woman in a developing country dying from a pregnancy-related cause during her lifetime is about 36 times higher compared to a woman living in a developed country, the report said.
President Jakaya Kikwete has appealed for increased resources to African nations to tackle child and maternal mortality rates, which have remained unacceptably high in the continent.
Kikwete told the 15th ordinary session of the African Union (AU) assembly held in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, in July that Tanzania like many governments in Africa was struggling to improve delivery of health services, but lacked sufficient resources.
Our problem in Africa is not lack of political will. We are having serious constraints in resources, he said and asked the international community to help save lives of millions of mothers and children in Africa.
He noted that the government allocated 1.2 trillion/- for the health sector in its 2010/11 budget, up from 963bn/- in 2009/10 -- a 25.2 percent increase.
Kikwete said Tanzania has made progress in reducing maternal, infant and under-five mortality rates in the past five years.
According to official records, under-five deaths dropped from 112 per 1,000 live births in 2004/05 to 91 per 1,000 live births in 2007/08, while infant (under one year) mortality rate also went down from 68 per 1,000 birth in 2004/05 to 58 out of 1,000 live births in 2007/08.
<Source: THISDAY, Oct. 20-26 issue>
