THE number of baby deaths have dropped dramatically in the past 25 years.
The Ministry of Health says deaths of children below the age of five dropped from 27.7 per cent to 16.6 per cent between 1990 and 2015.
Health Minister Jone Usamate yesterday refuted allegations by members of the public of a health crisis in the recent deaths of babies.
Mr Usamate said the death of children under the age of five years had reduced by 40 per cent since 1990.
“The perception that there is a crisis in terms of more babies dying is false. There has not been a spike in the number of baby deaths,” Mr Usamate said.
“The data shows that there has been a steady, but a slow decline in the perinatal mortality rate.”
This, he said, was a positive sign that showed Fiji had a health care system continuing to improve in saving lives overall. The quality of doctors and the processes they in place is a major factor behind that.
“I want to assure everybody that it has always been the intention of this ministry to provide the very best of service to all of our people. That is showing that we are able to look after these children much better,” Mr Usamate said.
One of the latest baby deaths investigated by the ministry was of a day-old infant who died on June 16 at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital in Suva.
The baby’s mother, Priya Devi, was informed by medical practitioners that her baby died from breathing complications caused by waste matter excreted by the baby, which went into her lungs.
Mr Usamate is committed to ensure the decline in baby deaths continue and that civil servants under his ministry deliver on these results.
