REDUCING CHILD MORTALITY

Improving coverage, quality and use of skilled care, including emergency obstetric care, essential newborn care and management of preterm, low birth weight and infection in the immediate post-partum period, are likely to reduce infant mortality significantly. A community newborncare package-including support for breastfeeding mothers, extra care for underweight babies, community-based management of pneumonia in neonates and treatment with oral antibiotic therapy-is the most cost-effective intervention to reduce newborn mortality.6 Recognizing the importance of the continuum of care, a recent publication, titled Opportunities for Africa's Newborns,7 studied strengths, gaps and opportunities for integrating high-impact interventions for newborn mortality reduction with existing programmes at facility and community levels.