Materia Medica Malaysiana

Malaysia sets the example with lowest regional child mortality rate

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia can show the rest of the region that it is possible to achieve low maternal and child mortality rates even as a developing nation, said Gaye Phillips, the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) representative to Malaysia.

She said Unicef was launching a new booklet entitled Progress of the Nations with the Health Ministry tomorrow in celebration of the country’s “amazing success” in reducing the number of deaths of children under five and also for its low maternal mortality rate.

Phillips said Malaysia had the second lowest maternal mortality rate in the world with only 40 deaths in 100,000 during childbirth.

“The number of children under five who have died has also been reduced to eight in 1,000. Comparatively, in the United States it is about nine to 10,” she said when met at the Cabinet's Hari Raya open house at the PWTC on Sunday.

Phillips said the ratio was also lower compared to countries in the region, namely Cambodia, which has 193 deaths in every 1,000, Thailand (12 to 14 deaths) and Indonesia (30). Singapore and Brunei had figures similar to Malaysia.

“Malaysia has good numbers because its health system is very good, it’s affordable and everyone has access to it.

“This gives great impact to the children, as they survive better with improved healthcare,” she said.

She said Malaysia managed to build a good health system whilst in the development stages because children were made a high priority.

“The good thing is that Malaysia can show the rest of the region that it achieved this kind of numbers in the 70s, 80s and 90s, by allocating resources to the right things.

“If Malaysia can do it, so can other countries,” she said.

Phillips, who started her duties here last December, said her first Hari Raya celebration was an amazing experience as “it is wonderful to see people coming together in this kind of friendship all under one roof.”

“We don’t have this back home in Australia. This is a wonderful custom in Malaysia,” she added.