Threat to mums
15/7/08
Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare has been taken to task over a high number of mothers dying every year in Papua New Guinea due to pregnancy related complications. President of the PNG Medical Society Dr Mathias Sapuri has written a letter to Sir Michael, saying 870 per 100,000 live births was a silent national disaster which needed an urgent national response. This is 2600 women dying every year, according to the national demographic health survey carried out in 2006. Dr Sapuri wrote the letter on Friday, after he returned from the Environment and Population Health Congress in Brisbane, Australia, where he learned that PNG had the highest maternal mortality rate in the Asia-Pacific region, and probably the worst in the world. The figures for neighbouring countries are: Solomon Islands – 500 per 100,000 live births; Fiji – 50 per 100,000 live births; Australia has 4 per 100,000 live births. The figure was 370 per 100,000 in 1996 but had risen.