This archive report was first published on 26 November 2019.
Improving Healthcare for Preterm Infants ¶
On November 17th, World Prematurity Day (WPD) is marked annually to acknowledge the journeys of preterm infants and their families, raising awareness of the challenges faced by children born before their due date and their families.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), an estimated 15 million infants worldwide are born preterm each year, with complications of preterm birth being among the leading causes of death in children under five.
Investing in research and development is critical to support the design, testing, and scaling-up of new and innovative care approaches. The Newborn Essential Solutions and Technologies (NEST360°) initiative, an international group led primarily by female engineers, physicians, and health experts, aims to save the lives of hundreds of thousands of newborn babies each year by providing the tools and training needed to support comprehensive neonatal care throughout sub-Saharan Africa.
NEST360° aims to reduce the neonatal mortality rate by optimizing a bundle of effective and affordable devices, training clinicians and biomedical engineers, developing locally-owned data to drive quality of care, and shaping a marketplace that connects device manufacturers with health systems.
By developing rugged, affordable technologies combined with new sustainable financing, distribution, training, and infrastructure systems, NEST360° expects to contribute to the reduction of newborn death rates by more than half — to fewer than 12 per 1,000 by 2030.
On November 26, 2019, the World Health Organisation (WHO) reported that neonatal deaths in Kenya stand at 22 in every 1,000 births, with 75 percent of them occurring within the first seven days of the infant’s life.
