ISLAMABAD, June 11: Pakistan ranks second among countries having the highest infant mortality rate, with figures standing at over 300,000. This was stated by national programme manager and head of neonatology department of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) Prof Mahmood Jamal. He was speaking at the five-week training programme titled ‘Safe Management of Newborn Infant’, which concluded at Pims on Saturday.

The programme was sponsored by the health ministry and Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) and organized by the Neonatology department of Pims.

Mr Jamal said nearly 70 to 80 per cent of the births took place at home. Major causes of newborn deaths are infections, low birth weight, asphyxia and complications during delivery.

He said strategies to reduce deaths among newborn babies could not work without the involvement of paediatricians working at DHQ and THQ hospitals.

Prof Jamal said it was ironic that while all primary health care programmes gave maximum emphasis on referrals of newborns to hospitals, a vast majority of secondary-level hospitals lacked basic infrastructure and expertise to deal with such problems.

He also highlighted the activities of the workshop in which over 30 experts/resource persons were invited from all over the country to share their experience.

The participants belonged to different district and tehsil headquarters hospitals.

They were especially trained to use simple low-cost technology for prevention of deaths of newborn babies in the country.

Dr Ito, an expert neonatologist, flew from Japan to impart training in resuscitation of newborn babies.

During the five-week activity, special field visits to different DHQ and THQ hospitals were arranged to see the facilities in these hospitals.

The Pakistan government also provided special resuscitation equipment to the participants for use in their respective hospitals.