“What
was so disturbing and far from factual in the report is that one in
eight women risk dying during pregnancy or childbirth and this is one
of the highest maternal death rates in the world” Mohamed D. Koroma
Deputy Health minister charged.
Koroma told Premier News newspaper on Wednesday that the whole report
was ‘erroneous’ and an attempt not only to destroy effort by his
ministry but the country as a whole. “Today in Sierra Leone every
community can boast of a health center or birth attendants and there
has never any report of people being refused treatment from them.”
Dr. Soccoh Kabia similarly said that international organizations
including UNICEF, DFID, and Save the Children among others are
deliberately ignoring latest statistics by the Macro International
company, a reputable American company in collaboration with Statistic
Sierra Leone.
Kabia revealed that the report does not in anyway reflect the current
situation in his country. Kabia argued that maternal mortality has
reduced from 2005 to 2008 which figures dropped 1300 to 857 which
according to him is a decline of 34% while the Under-5 mortality rate
dropped from 265 to 140 in 2008 which is a 47% drop. He claimed that a
lot of improvement has been done since their administration came to
power.
The AI Secretary-General Irene Khan who is in Sierra Leone with popular
Nigerian movie star on the Demand Dignity campaign and also to launch
the report was quoted to have said that “…the report acknowledges the
improvements but is still concerned that 6 out of 13 districts have no
Emergency Obstetrical Care facility.”
