CHENNAI: Though the State has reduced the Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) from 19 in 2015 to 15 in 2018, there has been no further improvement in 2019, according to a Sample Registration System report released by the Union government in October. However, officials and experts say it is a slow process and the government is already taking efforts to bring the number down further.
The report showed that among the southern States, Tamil Nadu stood second after Kerala, which has an IMR of six. Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu has brought down the rural IMR from 18 in 2018 to 17 in 2019. “Every step further will be tougher. First of all, we are climbing a steep slope. Improving nutrients is one angle we are focussing on. However, anaemia continues to be a challenge. We have to continue multi-focal efforts,” Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan told TNIE.
He added that there has been an improvement after the establishment of Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU). The introduction of neonatal ambulances, too, have help bring down the IMR, he said, adding the State has also recently started giving pneumococcal conjugate vaccine for children aged below five years. “Right from antenatal care to delivery and postnatal care, the Health department is doing everything. All these factors together will help in bringing down the IMR,” said Dr TS Selvavinayagam, Director of Public Health.
“Bringing it to a single digit will be a slow process. We have a problem with low birth-weight babies. But we are saving 75 per cent of them. We have to make it to at least 90 per cent. Premature deliveries are also a problem,” said Dr S Srinivasan, State Nodal Officer, NICU, PICU. “We also have to examine why mothers are going for premature deliveries, and prevent them,” he added.
Dr J Kumutha, Expert Adviser, Child Health, National Health Mission-Tamil Nadu, said, “We need to examine whether all low birth-weight babies we have saved so far, have survived, as neonatal deaths contribute to IMR.”
The State has also introduced a ‘Home Child Care’ programme this year to follow up children in community. Under the programme, Asha workers, village health nurses and anganwadi workers visit homes of high risk children aged three, five, six, nine and 12 months and teach their mothers breast-feeding, and educate them on immunisation, Kumutha said.
Low birth-weight babies, pre-term babies, those who underwent surgeries, those who had problems at birth and others are considered high-risk children. The programme aims to identify problems early, teach correct child-rearing practices, and monitor growth and development, Kumutha said.