Materia Medica Malaysiana

Dramatic drop in childbirth deaths

THE death rate among women who had just given birth has reduced dramatically in the past 50 years, according to China Press.
It quoted Health Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek as saying there were 530 deaths for every 100,000 deliveries in 1950 but in the year 2000, this had reduced to 30 deaths per 100,000 cases.
Dr Chua said with this achievement, Malaysia had met the World Health Organisation’s target of a 98% delivery success rate. He stated that this vast improvement was the result of the Government’s strategic five-year economic plans.
The infant mortality rate in the country has also improved from 19.7 deaths in every 1,000 newborns in 1981 to 6.8 deaths in 2002.
Dr Chua also said that today 90% of the country’s residents lived within five kilometres of a healthcare facility.
He urged all fathers and husbands to take good care of the health of women and children as they were important assets to the country.
Sin Chew Daily reported that the National Heart Institute (IJN) has introduced a new drug that will benefit those suffering from heart problems.
Compared with other anti-platelet drugs, the new drug clopidogrel is said to help save the lives of heart patients and prevent a second heart attack.
According to the institute, there are about 30,500 people in the country with heart problems. Every year, about 23% of heart patients die from heart attacks.
The drug is said to be one of the more effective drugs in preventing heart failure. The drug has been tested on about 10,000 patients by the institute’s research department. So far, there are more than four million users of the drug worldwide.