Mortality of children below 2 years in mukalla maternity and child hospital (MCH)‎ in year 2001 & 2002

الملخص EN

Objectives: To determine the incidence of mortality in children below 2 years of age in Mukalla MCH and discuss the common etiologies.

Study design: A retrospective descriptive study conducted in Mukalla MCH on Nov.21/2002and data were collected using the files of patients admitted to MCH in the years 2001and 2002.Results: the incidence of death in year 2001 was 14% while in year 2002 was 11.6% among children admitted to MCH, the most common cause of death in year 2001 was gastroenteritis (28%)while in year 2002 was prematurity (21.7%).

Neonates constitute 49.7% and 56.5% of deaths in 2001 and 2002 respectively.

Discussion: Death rate is high in Mukalla MCH in comparison to other countries due to poor socioeconomic conditions and high incidence of infectious diseases as well as inadequate medical services.

Conclusion: Gastroenteritis and prematurity are the most common causes of death in children below 2 years of age in Mukalla MCH in years 2001and 2002.the neonates represent about one half of all dead children.

Key Words: children, *Mortality *, Mukalla *,Yemen Introduction: Childhood mortality is defined as the probability of dying before or between a selective ages of childhood.

It refers variably to probability that child will die in first two years or in the five years of life or in between the first and fifth birthday (1).

Infant mortality rate = the number of deaths of infants under one year of age, in a given period of time, per 1,000 live births in the same amount of time.

Children-under-five mortality rate (U5MR) = the probability of children dying between birth and their fifth birthday, expressed as per of 1,000 children born alive.

(2).

30,500 children die every day in the lesser-developed world, and half of these deaths are associated with malnutrition.

Lesser-developed countries currently have a child mortality rate of 91, and the least developed countries have a rate of 161.out of 1,000 live births From 1990 to 2000 there has been a 14 percent reduction in the children-under-5-mortality-rate (U5MR) globally with 3 million fewer deaths.

More than sixty countries have reached the goal of reducing the U5MR by one-third (33 percent).

Unfortunately, U5MR rates increased in 14 countries (nine of them in sub- Saharan Africa) and were unchanged in eleven others.(2.Neonatal mortality in Yemen is more intractable problem than post-neonatal and child mortality due to less response to general improvement in socioeconomic condition and their relation directly or indirectly to maternal condition, prematurity, congenital anomalies, intrauterine growth retardation, unsafe delivery practice and low birth weight(3,4,5,6), in Yemen all are important contributors to neonatal mortality (4,7,8,12).Post-neonatal and more than one year mortalities are more frequent due to environmental factors including nutrition and provide sensitive indicator for the socioeconomic condition under which people live and infectious diseases which begin to appear in the second year of life.

(1,12).

It needs healthy children and implementing efforts to decrease infant and child mortality is the only way to ensure a healthy population and prosperous future.

Infant and child mortality is most affected by the health and sanitary conditions of the area in which a child is born.

In this study we tried to determine the incidence and most common causes of death in children under two years at Mukalla Maternity and Child Hospital (MCH) in the years 2001and 2002 and discuss its relationship to age, gender, body weight and residency.