The Ministry of Health has intensified training of neonatologists, doctors and neonatal nurses in a new drive to reduce the high number of newborn deaths in Uganda.
Uganda records between 1.4 and 2 million births annually, about 4,000 births daily, according to the Ministry. The 2022 Uganda Demographic and Health Survey (UDHS) puts neonatal mortality at 22 deaths per 1,000 live births, down from 27 in 2016. This translates to about 32,000 newborns dying every year, or one in every 45 babies dying before reaching one month.
Speaking during the 22nd annual paediatric conference in Kampala, Dr Richard Mugahi, the Commissioner for Reproductive and Child Health at the Ministry of Health, said the shortage of specialists remains critical.
"We've only had five neonatologists and they were not trained in Uganda, they have to deal with over 50 million people. Makerere University has trained our own neonatologists and our first group graduated in June this year," Dr Mugahi said.
The Ministry now targets to train 40 neonatologists to have at least one in every region.
"We would want to have a neonatologist in every region. We have a target of training 40 neonatologists, we are now at ten and we have six more in training so we think we are halfway," he said.
Dr Mugahi said most newborn deaths are caused by breathing complications, especially among premature babies, which can be prevented if neonatal centres are established in general referral hospitals.
"If the baby is born prematurely, they need help to breathe better using a drug called surfactant because they do not have enough of it when they are born. This drug is very expensive to an ordinary mother, since it costs about $200, about Shs 700,000 per dose," he said.
He appealed to government to make the drug free in all general hospitals across the country.
He added that beyond doctors, the country also lacks neonatal nurses and proper infrastructure.
"We are also yet to train neonatal nurses because we don't have any yet as well as the infrastructure to look after newborn care units. We need to have all these at the different care units and general referral hospitals," he said.
Anne Akullo, the President of the Uganda Paediatric Association, said previously, newborn specialists were trained in South Africa, which was costly.
"It is a two-year training program which takes about $25,000, Shs90 million per year which is less compared to going out of the country but still a big investment," she said.
Globally, 2.3 million children died in the first 28 days of life in 2022, about 6,500 newborn deaths daily, accounting for 47 percent of all under-five deaths, according to the World Health Organisation.
According to WHO, 75 percent of neonatal deaths occur during the first week of life, with about one million newborns dying within the first 24 hours.
