Infant mortality

Dr Prasanta Tripathy and Dr Nirmala Nair quit their jobs and launched Ekjut, an NGO that works to reduce infant and maternal mortality rates in Jharkhand and save thousands of lives among tribal communities

The response has been overwhelming with mothers showing their support with placards from various significant locations such as the Mysore Palace in India, Burj Kalifa in Dubai, New York Downtown in US, Norway Airport and more from across all continents.

While most hospitals in bigger cities have this facility, hospitals in tier-2 and tier-3 cities do not, hence putting the newborns at risk.

Bihar’s immunisation cold chain network runs on 1,946 working cold chain equipment installed across 654 vaccine stores and cold chain points. But it is the women and men who handle and deliver the vaccines who have contributed to the vaccination in the state.

In a country where 40 out of every 1000 infants die before the age of 5, milk banks come to rescue. In Rajasthan, one such a milk bank set up in 2013 has saved the lives of 1500 infants in three years.

Here are five encouraging takeaways from the latest National Family Health Survey.

After years of struggle and many mothers and newborns losing their life to maternal and neonatal tetanus, India has finally been declared free of this infection by WHO. Three cheers to the better health of the country.