Country representatives, development agencies gather in Johannesburg for global newborn health conference

"Representatives of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation attended the world's first global newborn health conference in Johannesburg on Monday," Business Day Live reports (Magubane/Rapetswane, 4/15). "Representatives from 50 countries are participating in the four-day conference which will focus on scaling up low-cost, high-impact interventions that address the three major causes of newborn mortality: prematurity, birth asphyxia and infection," the U.N. News Centre writes, adding, "The conference aims to highlight the use of low-cost medicines, equipment and health strategies such as exclusive breastfeeding at birth. It also focuses on helping countries develop action plans designed to reduce the mortality rates of babies during the first month of their lives" (4/15). The representatives "are expected to prepare a global action plan later this year to address the challenge of reducing newborn deaths and stillbirths," Business Day Live notes (4/15).