The number of women in Lebanon dying from pregnancy-related complications has nearly tripled amid a three-year economic crisis that has forced doctors and midwives to flee the country, the UN children’s agency Unicef said on Wednesday.
The crisis is also affecting children, especially among Syrian refugees who fled across the border into Lebanon.
UNICEF said that a third of children did not have access to healthcare by October 2021, and the number of children dying in the first four weeks after birth “has increased dramatically among refugees in four evaluated provinces, from 65 neonatal deaths in the first trimester. from 2020 to 137 in the third quarter.”
Lebanon is home to 1.5 million Syrian refugees, representing about a quarter of the population, according to official estimates.
“Repeatedly, distressed parents and families are unable to access basic healthcare for their children – as many dedicated healthcare workers struggle to keep operations running during the crisis,” said Ettie Higgins, UNICEF Representative in Lebanon.
About 40% of doctors, including those working specifically with children and women, have left the country, as have about 30% of midwives, UNICEF said, lowering the quality of services in a country previously seen as a regional health center. .
“Lebanon has achieved remarkable success in reducing maternal deaths, but the numbers have increased again between 2019 and 2021, from 13.7 to 37 deaths per 100,000 live births,” the agency said in a report. Didn’t give the raw numbers.
Faysal al-Kak, coordinator of Lebanon’s National Committee for Safe Motherhood, said the number of maternal deaths had increased largely due to the delta variant of the coronavirus in 2021, but said the crisis was also a factor.
“The Lebanese crisis is a strong variable – maybe the mother is not visiting enough, afraid to go to the doctor because it costs money. It gave women the feeling that ‘I can’t go to the doctor’,” he told Reuters.
“The delta and low vaccination rate – in addition to the worsening crisis we live in – may have indirectly affected accessibility, cost and transport.”
Rising cost of transport and services due to the collapse of the country’s currency and the removal of most fuel and drug subsidies have left health out of reach for many, UNICEF said.
Childhood vaccination rates have declined, leaving hundreds of thousands of children vulnerable to preventable diseases such as measles and pneumonia.
Source: CNN Brasil
I’m James Harper, a highly experienced and accomplished news writer for World Stock Market. I have been writing in the Politics section of the website for over five years, providing readers with up-to-date and insightful information about current events in politics. My work is widely read and respected by many industry professionals as well as laymen.
