UNICEF News note: Maternal and neonatal tetanus eliminated in China
Higher hospital delivery rate, improved mother and baby health play a major role
5 November 2012

Following a maternal and neonatal tetanus (MNT) elimination validation exercise carried out last month, the World Health Organization (WHO) formally declared that China has eliminated MNT on 30 October 2012. The validation exercise was carried out by 103 monitoring teams that conducted cluster surveys in Hechi Prefecture of Guangxi Province and Jiangmen Prefecture of Guangdong Province – chosen because of their high proportion of rural poor and migrant worker populations, who have limited access to clean delivery practices. The survey teams visited 45,088 households and investigated 2,306 live births and found zero cases of MNT.

WHO considers elimination of MNT to be achieved when there is less than one case of neonatal tetanus per one thousand live births in every district. If neonatal tetanus is eliminated, maternal tetanus elimination is assumed. Neonatal tetanus can be prevented by hygienic childbirth, careful handling of the umbilical cord during and after childbirth, or maternal vaccination with tetanus toxoid vaccine. The validation was coordinated by the Ministry of Health with support of UNICEF and WHO and now confirms that all prefectures in China have less than one case of the disease per one thousand live births. China now joins the 161 countries that have eliminated neonatal tetanus…
http://www.unicef.org/media/media_66329.html