Dev Kumar Sunuwar

DEV KUMAR SUNUWAR
KATHMANDU, AUG 03 –

The government will expand the distribution of Matree Surachhya Chakki (tablets to stop bleeding after child delivery) to women in their eight months of pregnancy to 15 districts where there is little access to health facilities, said an official at Ministry of Health and Population (MoPH).

So far, the tablets are being distributed in six districts — Dang, Sindhuli, Jumla, Doti, Bajhang and Mugu — after the programme yielded positive response in the pilot scheme in Banke district in 2008. The districts where the tablets will be distributed have not been listed yet.

“A large number of women in Nepal still die of excessive bleeding during childbirth as they do not avail of healthcare facilities during pregnancy and delivery,” said Dr. Silu Aryal, Senior Consultant Obstetrician and Gynecologist at the Family Health Division. “Women should take this tablet immediately after delivery. This would at least prevent them from dying due to excessive bleeding, even if they do not visit a hospital.”

She also said that the tablet was not a licence for women to deliver children at home. Women health volunteers will visit every month and counsel pregnant women as to which hospital to go to for safe delivery, what sort of diet to take during pregnancy, among others, and provide this tablet when the women reach eight months of gestation, in case they give birth on way to hospital or at home.

According to Dr. Aryal, a pregnant woman should visit a health facility at least four times – namely, during the fourth, sixth, eighth and ninth month, respectively.

However, according to a report of the MoHP, of the estimated 800,000 pregnant women across the country each year, only 50 percent of them visit health facilities in the fourth month. Further, only 29.4 percent of pregnant women complete the full course of the ante-natal scheme. As a result, at least 2,000 women die every year from pregnancy complications, and every year at least 30,000 infants die before they get to be one month old.

According to the Family Health Division, approximately 75 percent of the deliveries take place at home.

The Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Study (2008-09) undertaken by the Family Health Division of the Department of Health Services shows that maternal mortality and morbidity ratio had come down from 539 deaths per 100,000 live births in 1998 to 281 in 2006 and 229 in 2009. Nepal has to reduce the maternal mortality and morbidity rate to 134 by 2015 to meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG).

DEV KUMAR SUNUWAR
KATHMANDU, AUG 01 -

With a view to increase access and provide quality healthcare to the country’s urban poor, the Ministry of Health and Population (MoPH) has readied the National Urban Health Policy (NUHP), beginning this fiscal year.

The five-year policy aimed at providing accessible, affordable and reliable primary healthcare facilities to people living in town was prepared jointly by the Ministry of Local Development and MoPH. Both the Ministries will jointly launch urban-poor-centred programmes as per the policy for the period 2010 to 2014.

Despite the fact that there is the highest concentration of doctors and health facilities, the poor in urban areas are deprived of basic health services, according to Dr. Bhim Singh Tinkari, chief of Primary Health Care Revitalisation Division, under Department of Health Services.

“Therefore, MoHP is introducing this policy to delivery primary health services to poor people in 58-municipalities across the country,” said Dr. Tankari.

He also said that Child Health Division under Ministry of Health and other organisations assisting health services namely World Health Organisation, United Nation Child Fund (UNICEF) had often raised concern for not being able to outreach of immunisation programme among urban poor due to lack of clear policy and structure reaching to them.

As per data provided by MoHP, in 1981, of the total population of the country the urban population was 6.4 percent, whereas the population in 2001 reached 13.9 percent.

Of which 25.2 percent of the total urban population are poor. Similarly, the 45.6 percent of urban households have no sanitary system and 55 percent have no appropriate garbage disposal system.

At least 4.3 million populations of 58 municipalities (15 percent of the total population of the country) including in Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur, covering 43 districts do not have luxury of receiving preventive and primary health care services provided either free to the rural population, according to official at MoPH.

Under the Free Essential Health Care Services, the government has been providing 40 essential drugs at district hospitals, 32 at health post and 22 at sub-health posts since 2007.

According to NUHP, each ward will have at least an Urban Health Centre and one urban health volunteer. Similarly, the centre will procure free essential drugs as provided in sub-health post in rural areas.

“The services of the centre mainly will focus on poor, marginalised slum population and population living in squatters living across 58 municipalities of the country, emphasising on immunisation, leprosy, polio,” said Dr. Tankari.

DEV KUMAR SUNUWAR
KATHMANDU, MAR 20 –

The Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) is all set to scale up the medical abortion (MA) services across the country following the success of a pilot programme in six districts. Read more…

DEV KUMAR SUNUWAR
KATHMANDU, MAR 13 –
Doctors appearing in the entrance tests for the post-graduate degrees-Doctor of Medicine (MD) and Master of Surgery (MS)-at Maharajgunj-based Institute of Medicine (IoM) on Saturday boycotted the exams alleging that the top office bearer at the Dean’s Office leaked the question papers. Read more…

DEV KUMAR SUNUWAR
KATHMANDU, MAR 10 –
Every year, the Ministry of Health estimates suggest, the nation witnesses 2,700 kidney failure cases. Read more…

MAR 02 –
The global population growth rate has come down to 1.10 percent per annum from its peak of 2.2 percent in 1962-63. The slowdown is the result of rapid spread of contraception use and the disinclination among women of the industrialised world to have babies. Countries like Russia and Japan have seen their growth rates plummet below the replacement level — there are not enough babies to replace the current workforce. A growth rate of 2.1 percent, just enough to replace the number of currently living people, is considered healthy. Currently, Nepal’s population is growing at 2.3 percent per annum. Read more…

DEV KUMAR SUNUWAR
KATHMANDU, FEB 12 –

The government has claimed to have controlled the recent bird flu outbreak in parts of the popular tourist destination of Pokhara. Read more…

DEV KUMAR SUNUWAR
Kathmandu, Sep 26 -

Doctors have advised people to keep their health in mind while feasting during Dashain. Regular exercise and intake of fruits along with meat will help revellers remain in the pink of health, they say. Read more…

DEV KUMAR SUNUWAR
KATHMANDU, FEB 22 –

Nepal will be the first country to attain the United Nation (UN)’s universal target on elimination of Iodine Deficiency Disorder (IDD) among South Asian Countries, officials said on Monday. Nepal aims to eliminate the deficiency within this year. Read more…

FEB 21 –
Although the Interim Constitution 2007 provisioned for free basic health services for all Nepalis, its implementation hasn’t been easy. The government’s failure to equip rural health posts with 22-40 essential medicine and minimal manpower are indications of the challenges that lie ahead. Notably, 60 percent of the country’s health budget comes from donors. Hence, the success of free health depends much on the steady flow of funds from abroad. It was in part to remedy this donor dependence that the government started the social health insurance scheme as a pilot project in six VDCs of six different districts two years ago. In each of the six VDCs, people were charged small amounts in health insurance which would in turn build into a community health fund to finance medial expenses of the sick and the infirm. Read more…