Fiapre (B/A), Feb. 18, GNA - The Brong-Ahafo Regional Health Directorate recorded 94 cases of maternal deaths in 2009 as compared to 81 cases in the previous year, Dr. Aaron Offei, Regional Director, said on Thursday.

He said in 2007, the directorate recorded 88 cases and attributed the leading cause of the deaths to post partum haemorrhage. Dr. Offei said this at the opening of the 2009 annual review meeting of the directorate at Fiapre near Sunyani.

The two-day meeting is under the theme "Addressing the challenges of maternal and child health through quality and partnership". Dr. Offei said delay in getting patients to health facilities featured as one of the key contributory factors to maternal deaths. He expressed worry that the maternal mortality taskforce set up to support facilities to analyze causes and contributions of deaths and impart skills was quite dormant and needed to be revamped. Dr. Offei said guinea worm cases reduced significantly from 11 cases to two cases which represented a decrease of 78 percent. He said the region's HIV/AIDS prevalence stood at 2.6 percent and that 18 anti-retroviral therapy centres had been opened to offer treatment to AIDS cases.

Dr. Offei said under five case mortality of malaria was 1.7 percent which was way off the national average of less than one percent whilst tuberculosis control also registered some important progress. "Our case detection rate also registered some steady improvement from 22.1 percent to 25.6 percent", Dr. Offei added. Mr. Eric Opoku, the Deputy Regional Minister, said the government was determined to tackle the challenges that confronted health care delivery, especially maternal deaths, and advised the directorate to take up steps to supervise all deliveries at the various health facilities. He spoke against outright unprofessional attitudes of some health personnel in the region and advised them to show love and compassion to patients especially those involved in the management of mental cases. Mrs. Edith Annan, Country Advisor of the World Health Organisation (WHO), said globally maternal and child mortality rates had seen significant decrease. She said WHO would continue to partner with the government to ensure that maternal mortality rate reduced drastically.