LOVE IS…BREASTFEEDING!

Feb 15, ’12 10:12 AM

Happy meal...for free! © UNICEF Mozambique

The last post focused on Mozambique’s renewed efforts to tackle undernutrition and particularly stunting. The country is committed to intervene in the first 1,000 days of life, from conception to two years, in order to reduce the stunting rate among children under 5 from 44% to 20% by 2020.

In the comments section, Barbara from Save the Children rightly pointed at breastfeeding as one of the most effective weapons to reduce undernutrition in children. Breastfeeding is indeed one of the simplest interventions to save children’s lives. Yet, many women and children in Mozambique seem to miss out on such a simple, powerful intervention.

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KILLING THE FUTURE: THE DARKEST SIDE OF MALNUTRITION

Feb 7, ’12 7:26 AM

Preparing a meal ©UNICEF Mozambique

Last week, UNICEF Executive Director Tony Lake wrote a brief, yet powerful Op-Ed on the less known type of malnutrition called “stunting”. Stunting is the irreversible outcome of chronic nutritional deficiency during the first 1,000 days of a child’s life, i.e. from conception up to their second birthday. Stunted children look like “normal” children, but they are shorter than children of the same age. They are five times more likely to die from diarrhoea; and their brain development is impaired: the neurons of a stunted child are in fact fewer and smaller. The physical and cognitive damage caused by not receiving enough of the right type of nutrients in the first 1,000 days of life is permanent. It cannot be treated. But it can be prevented in these first 1,000 days– and at relatively little cost. A cost that is far below the economic and social benefits of its prevention.

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SEE IT, SMELL IT, FEEL IT: A FEW LESSONS FROM “THE FIELD”

Jan 31, ’12 8:21 PM

"Rociadores" in Marracuene, resting after spraying a house against mosquitoes ©E. Capobianco

In the past ten days I have been travelling a lot across Mozambique. I have been in Gaza Province to take a look at the APEs program and to quickly assess the impact of the cyclone Dondo. I have been to Marracuene, in Maputo Province, to check Indoor Residual Spraying against malaria and to see more training of APEs. I am now in Zambezia, to discuss with the Provincial Director and his Team how to plan for the implementation of a USD20 million CIDA-funded project that the United Nations will implement in the next 4 years.

These days looking at UNICEF work and interacting with people in the field have been priceless. They showed me the distance between paperwork and reality, between dry statistics and people with faces and feelings. I have seen a lot, I have listened as much as possible and I have tried to put myself in the shoes of the people I have met. Above all, I have learnt some lessons that cannot be easily learnt staying in an office behind a computer.

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WILL MOZAMBIQUE LEAD THE COMMUNITY HEALTH WORKERS’ REVOLUTION?

Jan 26, ’12 11:00 AM

A CHW in Guija checks a baby for pneumonia by counting the number of breaths per minute ©E. Capobianco

Jeffrey Sachs recently wrote an interesting article titled “Breakthrough in Saving Lives in Rural Africa”. The article is about the new wave of community health workers (CHWs) that is rapidly moving across Africa, saving thousands of lives in many countries. CHWs come from rural communities, have local knowledge and can reach vulnerable individuals and marginalized groups providing life saving interventions. Sachs calls for a scale up of mass training and deployment of CHWs and makes the argument that the Global Fund and leading pharmaceutical companies should finance CHWs’ deployment across the continent.

On January 19, Luigi, two colleagues from Save the Children, and I travelled to Guija’, in Gaza Province, to review how the CHWs Program in Mozambique(called the APEs program) is functioning. We saw a training center where 20 new APEs were being formed and we spent time observing and talking to one APE operating in a remote village. The visit strengthened my conviction that Mozambican APEs are a major weapon to reduce child mortality due to malaria, diarrhea and pneumonia. It also made me think of what needs to be done to make this program truly successful in Mozambique. Here are my thoughts.  

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OBSTETRIC FISTULA: DESPAIR AND HOPE THROUGH ALZIRA’S EYES

Jan 17, ’12 5:40 PM


In October 2011 Mozambique hosted the International Obstetric Fistula Conference. At the closing ceremony in the Centro Franco Moçambicano in Maputo, UNFPA presented a touching video about Alzira, a young Mozambican woman, who experienced the physical and moral scars of obstetric fistula at the age of 16 and was later cured through a series of surgeries.

Alzira is one of the 100,000 Mozambican women that suffer from a disease that is often the result of early marriages, violence against women, and early pregnancies. Obstetric fistula is aggravated by delayed diagnosis due to the unavailability or unacessibility of health facilities, and unassisted deliveries. Women are often rejected by their families and seek help too late due to stigma associated with the disease.

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SAVING CHILDREN’S LIVES: THE WAY FORWARD

Jan 10, ’12 4:07 PM

From our guest blogger Luigi D’Aquino, Mother and Child Health Specialist in UNICEF Mozambique.

The birth of a child perpetuates every day the miracle of life.

On the other hand – as a tragic paradox – the many newborns and children deaths occurring every day remain a plague that still hits many Mozambican families, perpetuating social injustice and reminding us all that  the stunning economic and social development of this country is still insufficient and inequitable.

According to 2008 estimates, approximately 110.000 children die every year in Mozambique.  This means that more than 300 children die in country every day: more than 12 per hour.

Child mortality in Mozambique has declined steadily since 1990. Under-five mortality was estimated at 201 per 1000 live births in 1997, at 178 in 2003 (DHS), and at 138 in 2008 (MICS).  Yet, at the current trends of under-five mortality reduction of about 3.5% per year during the period 1990-2008, the country will fail to reach its MDG 4 target.

How can we accelerate progress and improve child survival in Mozambique?

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THE 2011 MEASLES CAMPAIGN: A SUCCESS OR A FAILURE?

Dec 19, ’11 11:50 AM

Baby with Cartao de Saude da Crianca ©UNICEF Mozambique

In May 2011 the Ministry of Health run a nationwide measles campaign as part of the Child Health Week targeting 3.6 million children aged 6-59 months. The campaign was adequately financed and  well organized, with thousands of teams on the ground distributing the vaccine, along with vitamin A and mebendazole for deworming. The administrative results of the 5-days long campaign went beyond expectations: the campaign apparently reached 3.9 million children, i.e the totality of the target group plus a considerable amount of extra children outside the age group. The total administrative coverage was 104%.  

In September, the results of a measles coverage survey conducted after the campaign  were released by Ernst & Young. The survey showed a coverage of only 80%, much lower than the administrative coverage. So, which source should be trusted? And ultimately, was the campaign a success (as administrative data suggest), or a failure (as coverage data suggest)?

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MOZAMBIQUE AS A LEADER IN M-HEALTH SOLUTIONS

Dec 15, ’11 5:38 PM

From our first guest blogger: Lise Ellyin, Mozambique Country Director for the Clinton Foundation

Emanuele asked me to contribute to this great blog to discuss the Mhealth solutions being implemented in Mozambique, for which I am delighted to share on behalf of the Ministry of Health and partners. It seems fitting to be writing this while I am in China, a capital of technologies.

Innovative solutions are changing the way health services are delivered these days in Mozambique. The country has become one of the leaders in this area: in evaluating and implementing new diagnostic technologies and mobile health solutions, sharing these experiences globally via conferences, publications and most recently showcased in the WHO July 2011 Implementation guidelines.

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A TURNING POINT FOR CHOLERA IN MOZAMBIQUE?

Dec 9, ’11 3:41 PM

A tent for cholera patients in Cabo Delgado ©E. Capobianco

Cholera is an ugly disease: it starts suddenly and in a matter of hours it can kill a previously healthy person. An untreated individual with cholera can produce 10-20 liters of diarrhoea per day: the resulting dehydration and electrolyte imbalances can rapidly become fatal. Whoever has seen a person vomiting or having diarrhoea due to cholera knows how terrifying the disease can be. Yet, this disease can be easily prevented and just as easily treated.  

For many decades cholera has been a leading killer in Mozambique. Despite one epidemic occurred in the northern provinces and one in the Maputo area, national epidemiological data for 2011 indicate a remarkable progress compared to previous years.

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2011 IN RETROSPECTIVE

Dec 5, ’11 10:09 PM

2011 has been an eventful year in the Mozambican Health Sector. Since we are already in December, the blog will use the last few weeks of 2011 to review some of the key moments, successes, failures and missed opportunities in the sector. We will talk of cholera, new HIV diagnostics, measles and much more. Stay tuned and see you back soon on Saude e Vida!

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