Karonga records 65 neonatal deaths in six months

Health authorities in Karonga have disclosed that the district has recorded 65 neonatal and 13 maternal deaths in the period of January to June of 2023.

This was revealed on Thursday during an engagement that the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) under the Karonga Diocese held to lobby duty bearers for funding of a maternity wing at the Karonga District Hospital.

In an interview Senior Nursing Officer at KDH Komani Moyo, attributed the increase of the neonatal and maternal deaths down to labor complications during delivery as a result of inadequate infrastructure in the current maternity wing.

“Due to inadequate space at the maternity wing we are struggling to deal with emergencies when they arise when the woman has failed to deliver naturally because we only have one operating theatre which cutters for all surgical interventions at the hospital hence delays as there might be already someone in the operating theatre,” he explained.

Moyo added the construction of a maternity wing will contribute to the reduction of neonatal and maternal molarity and ease challenges encountered which include labor and delivery wards, antenatal ward and operating theatre.

On his part CCJP Project Officer Tuntufye Simwimba, pointed out that since Malawi is a signatory of the Abuja declaration which state that 15% of every national budget should be allocated to health, however the country hasn’t lived up to the declaration as it only allocates about 10% to health.

“The inadequate funding to the health sector is leading to the challenges that many health centers are experiencing including Karonga as evidently seen with the increase numbers of neonatal and maternal deaths which is a sad and concerning situation thus we thought of organizing this engagement to lobby for resources for the construction of a maternity wing,” he said.

However one of the health analyst George Jobe, has employed the Government and the corporate world to come in urgently and construct the maternal wing to address the alarming numbers of neonatal and maternal deaths in Karonga which he describes as a setback to the development of Malawi.

With funding from Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) and Dan Church Aid (DCA) CCJp are carrying out a fighting inequality project in Karonga.