Via allAfrica.com, a discouraging New Vision report: 866 Jubilee Babies Likely to Die This November. Excerpt:
On Tuesday, Uganda's 50th Independence anniversary, little Jubilee was the first baby to be born at a medical centre in Kyebando, in Wakiso district.
The Jubilee celebration's "first baby" was born at 12:44 am to 25-year-old Namukasa. "I am very excited. Her name is Jubilee," she says.
Baby Jubilee is among the over 3,300 babies born on the day Uganda celebrated the independence golden jubilee countrywide.
Health experts explained that the Golden Jubilee babies born in hospitals were only a drop in the ocean. The majority are born at their homes in rural areas.
With a population growth rate of 3.2% per annum, about 1.2 million babies are born every year, which translates into an average of 3,333 babies per day.
Will the babies survive?
According to statistics, 26% of newborns die in their first month of life, which means about 866 of the jubilee babies will die before 9th November.
Dr. Miriam Sentongo, a senior doctor in the reproductive health division in the ministry of health, says while Uganda's newborn mortality rate has reduced by 2.2% between 2000 and 2010, the statistics of deaths are still way too high.
In fact, in Kampala, it was reported that at least two of the children who were born on Independence Day died shortly after birth.
