Health Program
Kosovo’s infant mortality is among the highest in Europe. USAID is helping reduce infant mortality and improve maternal health by strengthening essential maternal and child health services.
Current Activities
Kosovo Maternal and Child Health Program
The Kosovo Maternal and Child Health Program is helping reduce infant mortality and improve maternal health by strengthening essential maternal and child health services.
The program is assisting primary and secondary care providers, as well as the Ministry of Health, in implementing a comprehensive approach to the delivery of maternal and child health services and other key health services for women and children. The three-year project is addressing several key areas:
1. Strong, regionalized system of maternal & newborn health care
The program is helping to establish capacity at two regional hospitals to care for at-risk newborns, in addition to the main newborn care offered in Pristina. Providing equipment, supplies, training and side-by-side mentoring of regional hospital staff will reduce infant mortality rates and ease the burden on the Pristina hospital.
The reach of these improvements extends beyond the regional hospitals. Staff at local Family Medicine Centers are also being trained on how to better care for premature infants. Training includes techniques such as proper warming of newborns being transported to another hospital, improving antenatal care for pregnant women, and identifying potential complicated births.
2. Improving pediatric care
Today children are treated in emergency rooms like adult patients, without specialized pediatric care. To ensure effective, basic care at all levels, as well as specialty care at the secondary level, a regionalized pediatric care network is being established. This will include establishing pediatric emergency care.
3. Women’s health
The project is improving women’s health through increasing health care providers’ skills in gynecology and increasing breast and cervical cancer detection and screening.
