Africa: WHO Urges Scale Up of Newborn Screening to Improve Early Detection and Care of Birth Defects

Africa: WHO Urges Scale Up of Newborn Screening to Improve Early Detection and Care of Birth Defects

The World Health Organization (WHO) today calls on countries to expand newborn screening for birth defects, highlighting how early detection and treatment can save lives and reduce lifelong disability for millions of children. A new WHO report, Strengthening capacity for newborn screening, diagnosis and management of birth defects, identifies newborn screening as an important opportunity…

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Africa: Why Maternal and Newborn Health Must Be the World’s Most Urgent Priority #IWD2026

Africa: Why Maternal and Newborn Health Must Be the World’s Most Urgent Priority #IWD2026

Women continue to die from complications of pregnancy and childbirth, and this is unacceptable. While Africa has made progress in reducing maternal mortality since 2000, the region still needs a twelve-fold increase in the annual reduction rate to meet the Sustainable Development Goal, according to the estimates from the United Nations Maternal Mortality Estimation Interagency…

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