Dear HOPE Friends,
Dr. Mubina Agboatwalla - Chairperson of HOPE featured in The Telegraph UK Article regarding Pakistan Floods and Maternal/Infant Mortality Rates Increasing
"There has already been a surge in maternal and infant mortality since the onset of the floods, according to Dr Mubina Agboatwalla, the chairperson of Health Oriented Preventive Education (Hope), a Pakistani NGO working to improve the health of the country’s poor.
“Initially, I was hearing about a couple of deaths in camps set up for those displaced by flooding, but now I am regularly hearing about deaths among mothers in all the flood affected areas. The situation is terrible,” said Dr Agboatwalla. “Also, many of these babies are now being born without resuscitation facilities and so if they survive they can suffer from birth hypoxia, where they have a disability or can be more vulnerable to a disease like meningitis.”
Before the flooding, Pakistan already had one of the highest maternal mortality rates in Asia, with 186 deaths per 100,000 births, according to the Pakistan Maternal Mortality Survey in 2020."
Warm regards,
The HOPE UK Team
