Sindh govt brings child mortality rate down: Murad.

KARACHI -- Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said Friday that his government with focused efforts on children's health had successfully brought a drastic reduction in child mortality rate from 104 to 46 per 1000 live births over a period of five years.

'These are not my figures but they have been revealed in a UNICEF-supported survey - 202,' he said while talking to media just after attending a program of Childlife Foundation organized to celebrate 100,000 telemedicine consultations in Sindh at Civil Hospital Karachi. The programme was attended by Secretary Health Zulfiqar Shah, Childlife CEO Dr Ahson Rabani and others.

The chief minister said that his government had focused on children's health and achieved a reduction in child mortality rate from 104 to 46 per 1000 live births during the last five years. 'It is a big success of our child health programmes, specially launched through public private partnership,' he said and added that in 2018, Economist Intelligence Unit rated Sindh as 6th best in partnerships in Asia.

Mr Shah recalled that his government's partnership with Childlife started in 2010 with the sole objective of improving children's emergency care. 'By 2018, free emergency service was established in five government hospitals, Karachi and now no child in the city is more than 30 minutes away from world class, 24/7, free emergency services,' he said proudly. The CM said that in 2019, nine children emergency care centres were established in hospitals of Karachi, Hyderabad, Benazirabad, Larkana and Sukkur where more than 900,000 children were being treated annually.

The chief minister said that our partnership with Childlife Foundation had now translated into establishment of Telemedicine Satellite Centers to improve service at...