Mozena said Bangladesh had already reduced the mortality of children under 5 by 60% and it should be proud of this continuing progress
- US Ambassador to Dhaka Dan Mozena
US Ambassador in Dhaka Dan W Mozena Sunday praised Bangladesh for its success in achieving millennium development goals, especially in containing child and maternal mortality.
“Bangladesh once again is showing the way on health. It is one of the few countries anywhere in the world that is on track to achieve the millennium development goals relating to child mortality and maternal mortality,” he said.
Bangladesh had already reduced the mortality of children under 5 by 60% and it should be proud of this continuing progress, Mozena said while addressing as a guest of honour at the declaration ceremony of the “Ending Preventable Child Deaths before 2035: Bangladesh Calls for Action” organised by the health ministry.
He said ending preventable child death in Bangladesh also required major investments and commitment in educating girls, empowering women, achieving broad-based economic progress and ensuring food security.
Speaking at the programme, Health and Family Welfare Minister AFM Ruhal Hoque reiterated Bangladesh’s commitment to end preventable child deaths through strengthening previous successes in the area and reduce under-5 mortality to 20 per 1,000 births by 2035.
He said to achieve that target the country would implement new-born specific interventions, ensured delivery by skilled attendants, establish effective referral linkage to ensure continuous care from community clinics, strengthen integrated management of childhood illness, engage multi-sectoral approach to ensure exclusive breastfeeding of children up to six months, complementary feeding practices for six-month-old children, and introduce new life-saving vaccines.
Health Secretary MM Niazuddin presided over the programme. Prof Syed Modasser Ali, adviser to the prime minister on health and family welfare, Christine E Kimes, acting country director of the World Bank, Pascal Villeneuve, country representative of Unicef, Syed Abu Jafar Md Musa, director of Primary Healthcare and line director of the MNCAH, DGHS, and Niru Shamsun Nahar, joint chief for planning of the health ministry, spoke at the programme.
Source: DhakaTribune
