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December 30, 2009

World Urged to Do More to Fight Maternal Mortality
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The Director-General of the World Health Organization, Dr. Margaret
Chan, said Tuesday that the international community must do more to
fight against maternal mortality.

Dr. Margaret Chan: “One thing that touches me very deeply is the lack of
progress in MMR, maternal mortality, in many countries, in Africa, many
countries in Africa, in India and other countries in Asia, as well. Now,
another important area, also fall under the overall scope of health for
women and girls, is violence against women, abuse against women. These
are issues we really need to double our effort, or triple our effort."

During her year-end news conference, Margaret Chan also noted some
developments in world health over the past year.

Dr. Margaret Chan: “For the first time, we are seeing more than four
million HIV patients receiving treatment. This is unimaginable ten years
ago. Another example, the under-five child mortality, for the first time
in sixty years we saw this figure drop below ten million.”



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