Nepal lockdown halved health facility births and increased stillbirths and newborn deaths

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Nepal HNN Team

This article was originally published by the LSHTM COVID-19 response has resulted in major reductions in health facility births in Nepal and widened inequalities, with significantly increased institutional stillbirth and neonatal mortality, according to a new study in the Lancet Global Health. The research was led Dr Ashish KC and Nepal colleagues with Uppsala University, Sweden, and … Continued

Failure to register newborns leaves millions ‘invisible’ warns UN Children’s Fund

UN News India, Ethiopia, Zambia, Chad, Nepal, Bangladesh HNN Team

This article was originally posted on UN News   UNICEF reports that the births of one in four children under-five, or some 166 million children globally, have never been officially recorded. Too many children are “slipping through the cracks,” said Henrietta Fore, the agency’s Executive Director: “A child not registered at birth is invisible – nonexistent … Continued

Pneumonia: how the world’s biggest killer of children became a neglected disease

Telegraph UK Ethiopia, Nepal HNN Team

When two-year old Sienna Wilson suddenly developed a fever in the middle of the night the first thing her parents, Kate and David, suspected was malaria. When the doctor arrived in the morning he agreed. He began treating her accordingly. Hours later, unconscious and in a critical condition, Sienna was airlifted to a private hospital … Continued

In Nepal, a Monthly Exile for Women

New York Times Nepal HNN Team

In remote western Nepal, where the Himalayas brush the sky, girls spend their childhoods as they have for generations, dreading growing up. Puberty starts a monthly exile. An entrenched, superstitious practice linked to Hinduism, Chaupadi, considers menstruating women impure and bad luck, rendering them untouchables. Menstruating women are banished, often to forests where they sleep … Continued

Mothers and Babies

Nepal HNN Team

Relief agencies move out, but the need for maternal and child care is greater than ever in quake-hit areas.

Newborns at Risk in Nepal as Monsoon Season Approaches

Nepal HNN Team

Thousands of newborn babies are at serious risk of illness and neonatal death in Nepal, Save the Children warns, one month on from the earthquake that claimed at least 8,500 lives.

Emergency preparedness pays off as Kathmandu hospitals respond to earthquakes

Nepal HNN Team

In Nepal, hospital retrofitting, which involves everything from repairing cracks in walls to installing seismic belts and roof bracing, has been a core part of preparedness plans.

New estimates show 126,000 pregnant women affected by Nepal quake

Nepal HNN Team

Women and girls are among the most vulnerable. UNFPA has rushed the delivery of reproductive health kits, which contain the supplies required to support safe childbirth.

Nepal: Over 50,000 pregnant women affected from quake: UNFPA

Nepal HNN Team

“In times of upheaval or natural disasters, pregnancy-related deaths and gender-based violence soar,” said Priya Marwh, UNFPA ’s humanitarian response coordinator in Asia and the Pacific.

Quake overwhelms Nepal’s weak healthcare system

Nepal HNN Team

The country of 28 million has only 2.1 physicians and 50 hospital beds for every 10,000 people, according to a 2011 World Health Organization report.