Health chief urges maternal health focus

A leading figure in the world of health has called for renewed focus upon maternal health in Africa.

Dr Mickey Chopra has been appointed Unicef chief of health and associate director of programmes.

He has called for more cooperation between various global health organisations in order to produce better results.

Also, Dr Chopra highlighted the worrying trend for maternal health issues to be ignored in nations in southern and eastern Africa, including Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

"It's the only region in the world that has actually seen an increase in child mortality in the past decade," he said.

"There are various problems included in coping with an increase in mortality that go beyond the health care."

However, Dr Chopra went on to praise progress in combating Aids, noting that condom use is on the rise in the developing world and awareness of the virus is also growing.

News brought to you by Global Health TV, connecting health communities