Neonatal mortality in Nepal: A Public Health Concern

Health Prospect 2011, Vol. 10 The term neonate refers to a live born infant from birth to before reaching 28 completed days of age whereas neonatal mortality rate(NMR) refers to the number of live born babies who die in the first 28 days after birth per 1000 live births (WHO, 2009). Neonatal death is a global public health problem mostly concentrated in low and middle income counties. Globally, out of 130 million newborn, 4 million neonates die each year and 450 newborns die every hour and 99% of them occurs in middle and low income countries (Lawn, Cousens & Zupan, 2005). A study done by Lawn, Ketende and Cousens(2006) http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/ content/35/3/706.abstract aff-4found that the leading causes of neonatal death globally were infections (sepsis/ pneumonia, tetanus, and diarrhoea, 35%), preterm birth (28%), and asphyxia (23%).