The death of newly-born babies, due to malnutrition, continued in the Tharparkar region of Sindh as three more infants passed away at the Civil Hospital, Mithi in the last 24 hours.
According to the Health Department of Sindh, every year around 1,500 children die due to malnutrition, infection and lack of proper medical facilities in the Tharparkar region and these recent deaths took the death toll to 28 in the area for the month of August.
A report released by the United Nation’s Children Fund in April, 2018 stated that Pakistan was among the countries with the highest infant mortality rates, with 22 infants dying before turning one month old. The other countries which were in the report included eight countries from Africa and two from Asia and Afghanistan being the third in the list with the most infant deaths.
According to the report, “Pakistan is the riskiest place to be born as measured by its newborn mortality rate and a baby born in Pakistan is almost 50 times more likely to die during his or her first month than a baby born in Japan, Iceland and Singapore.”
Published in Daily Times, August 20th 2018.