Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus Elimination
The partnership
WHO/Yoshi Shimizu
Direct skin-to-skin contact between mother and newborn baby in Dr Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital.
Direct skin-to-skin contact between mother and newborn baby in Dr Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital.
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Credits
The Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus Elimination Initiative was launched by UNICEF, WHO and UNFPA in 1999, revitalizing the goal of MNTE as a public health problem. The definition of Neonatal Tetanus (NT) elimination as a public health problem is having less than one NT case per 1000 live births in every district per year. Maternal tetanus is assumed to be eliminated once NT elimination has been achieved.
Within the partnership, each partner brings in its own field of expertise:
- Countries: ownership, oversight and implementation of recommended strategies;
- UNICEF: coordination of accelerated activities and strengthening routine immunization to achieve and maintain MNTE;
- UNFPA: promotion of clean deliveries and clean cord care practices;
- WHO: monitoring and validation of elimination status, development of strategies for sustaining elimination and strengthening routine immunization.
The UNICEF/WHO/UNFPA strategy document published in 2000, identified 57 countries* that had not yet achieved MNTE. Timor-Leste and South Sudan were added to this list following their independence in 2005 and 2011 respectively, making a to total 59 countries. Significant progress has been made since that time, however, as of December 2023, MNT remains a major public health problem in 11 countries** spread in three of the six WHO Regions (five in AFR, five in EMR and one in WPR).
Central African Republic, Guinea Conakry, South Sudan, Sudan and South Yemen has completed the implementation of three mandatory rounds and eligible for pre-validation assessment/validation survey.
Two countries have partially eliminated MNT:
- South East zone of Nigeria (Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo states), Southwest zone of Nigeria (Ekiti, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo Osun and Oyo states), South-south zone (Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Edo and Rivers states) and Northcentral zone (Benue, Federal Capital Territory, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger and Plateau states);
- Pakistan (Punjab province).
*Afghanistan, Angola, Bangladesh, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Central African Republic (the), Chad, China, Comoros (the), Congo (the), Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo (the), Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Kenya, Liberia, Lao People's Democratic Republic (the), Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritania, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Niger (the), Nigeria, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines (the), Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Togo, Turkey, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania (the), Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe - Timor-Leste and South Sudan increased the number of countries to 59.
**11 countries where MNT is still a public health problem: Afghanistan, Angola, Central African Republic, Guinea Conakry, Nigeria, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan and Yemen.