Albania, the second in Europe for the highest infant mortality rates

2024-07-11 08:22:00, Aktualitet CNA

Albania, the second in Europe for the highest infant mortality rates

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Births in Albania are falling rapidly, but the infant mortality rate remains high. According to INSTAT data, in 2023, 6.1 babies lost their lives in 1000 live births, from 6.5 in 2022.

With these results, Albania has an infant mortality rate twice as high as the European average in 2022, with 3 deaths per 1,000 live births.

Albania, with the data of 2023, ranks second for the highest infant mortality in Europe, after Turkey (9.2).

INSTAT reported that in 2023, 144 infant deaths were registered, 52.1% were early neonatal (0-6 days old), 18.0% late neonatal (7-27 days old) and 29.9% were postneonatal (28 -365 days).

The main causes of infant mortality are "Diseases that appear in the perinatal period" with 49.3%, "Diseases of the circulatory system" with 20.1% and "Congenital anomalies" with 9.7% of registered deaths .

Doctors claim that Albania has high infant mortality due to the lack of neonatal doctors.

Neonatology is a branch of pediatrics that deals with the health of babies in the first 28 days of life. Having a specific focus and for a short period the life of the baby, pediatricians do not prefer to specialize in this direction.

They find it best to work as a general pediatrician, as they will cover health problems for children up to 14 years old, unlike neonatologists who must be specified for one-month-old babies.

Fewer and fewer young doctors choose this profession, while the demands for the health of babies in the first days of life are increasing. Almost all regional hospitals do not have a neonatologist, only an obstetrician.

6-7 years ago, in the two public maternity hospitals of Tirana, "Queen Geraldine" and "Koço Gliozheni", there were 20 neonatal doctors, while now there are not even half of them.

As with all disease groups, lifestyle influences pregnancy and postnatal disease. The age of marriage for women is increasing, also smoking, alcohol, obesity are more and more common among women.

Because of these changes, fewer and fewer mothers now give birth naturally and fewer and fewer choose to breastfeed their babies.

The public entities responsible for examining these factors and their impact on infant mortality have not yet undertaken any study, but indirect data show that, parallel to the increase in medical checks, the lifestyle of new mothers is changing rapidly./ Monitor