18/03/2021
BENEFIT OF KMC IS 65-FOLD HIGHER THAN THE MORTALITY RISK OF COVID-19
“Newborn care providers are stressed and there is lack clarity and guidelines regarding care of small newborns during the pandemic. There is an urgent need to protect life-saving interventions, such as kangaroo mother care (KMC), threatened by the pandemic, and to be ready to recover and build back better,” concludes a new study http://bit.ly/30QupXo that inquired into small and sick newborn care during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Relatedly, another paper https://bit.ly/3ltkmAU titled, Preterm care during the COVID-19 pandemic: A comparative risk analysis of neonatal deaths averted by kangaroo mother care verses mortality due to SARS-CoV-2 infection concludes that 125,680 neonatal lives could be saved with universal KMC coverage. “Hence, the benefit of KMC is 65-fold higher than the mortality risk of COVID-19. If recent evidence of 10% transmission was applied, the ratio would be 630-fold. We estimated a 50% reduction in KMC coverage could result in 12,570 incremental deaths and full disruption could result in 25,140 incremental deaths, representing a 2·3–4·6% increase in neonatal mortality across the 127 countries.” According to the study authors, policymakers and healthcare professionals need to protect services and ensure clearer messaging to keep mothers and newborns together, even if the mother is SARS-CoV-2-positive.
