External birth defects and neonatal mortality in the Province of Binh Thuan, Vietnam

Out of 4 million neonatal deaths, about 99% occur in low- and middle-income countries, accounting for half of all deaths in under-five children. Worldwide, birth defects are a leading cause of neonatal and infant mortality, and their impact on the future child, on the child's family and on the community is not restricted to mortality. The neonatal mortality and birth defects are therefore of significant Public Health concern. The general objective of this project was to improve the mother-infant health by focusing on birth defect prevalence and neonatal mortality in the Province of Binh Thuan in South of Vietnam. The findings of our prospective population-based registry study show that the prevalence of external birth defects in the Province of Binh Thuan were generally closed to other registries for most external birth defects, except for spinabifida whose absence requires further investigations. Result of our study clearly shows that neonatal mortality rate was generally lower than in other studies conducted in the North of Vietnam. Our study was able to tract some risk factors for neonatal mortality. Some of them are obviously editable such as mother‟s education and teenage mothers. Our follow-up study shows a physical growth of infant under 9 months similar to WHO reference population, in this Vietnamese province, but a too low prevalence of heart murmurs was found. This work provides accurate informations on the burden of congenital anomalies and neonatal mortality. Such data can be useful to identify and prioritise interventions, especially low-cost interventions that can improve perinatal care and outcomes in this population. These are: - Increase education level in Vietnam, especially in remote areas and in ethnic minorities for reinforcing prenatal care and good mother‟s attitudes during pregnancy; - Educate young girls to avoid pregnancy in teenagers; - Encourage health workers of commune health stations to early well identify birth defects; - Train health workers of commune health stations to cardiac examination of infant for improving the detection of congenital cardiac anomalies.(MED - Sciences médicales) -- UCL, 201