Publication:

Maternal mortalities due to infectious diseases at a tertiary care centre in India

Background Maternal death and poor birth outcomes are major public health issues in much of the world. Most of the mortality and morbidity burden around child birth are directly due to obstetrical problems such as haemorrhage. However, there is very little information on the importance of the great diversity of infectious diseases on pregnancy outcome, especially in the tropics. There is poor evidence as to whether obstetrics patients are at a higher risk of diseases that are common causes of fever in the tropical areas and what the impact is on mothers and their offspring, by pathogens and gestational age. Understanding of this fact is impaired as deaths from infectious diseases and deaths in pregnancy are often not evaluated jointly in public health surveillance.

Methods This is a retrospective, observational case series undertaken at a tertiary care centre at Seth G. S. Medical College and K.E.M. Hospital, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India during the period of January 2011 to December 2015.This data collection was done by reviewing the maternal death record forms.

Results This study shows that there is significant number (23.58%) of maternal deaths due to infectious diseases. Out of a total of 37266 deliveries over a period of five years, 407 maternal deaths occurred and out of these 96 patients died due to infectious diseases. Among these, deaths due to tuberculosis were seen in 32.29%, hepatitis E 26.04%, pyrexia of unknown origin 9.3%, malaria 8.33%, dengue 6.25%, swine flu 5.2%, leptospirosis 3.12%, and community acquired pneumonia 3.12%, viral encephalitis 2.08%, tuberculosis with HIV 2.08%, amoebiasis and typhoid 1.04% each.

Conclusions Though India failed to achieve the millennium development goal, it fell short of the goal by a small margin. Educational status and the socioeconomic development are major factors that need to be corrected. Effective preventive strategies at personal and community level will definitely reduce the preventable maternal mortalities due to infectious diseases and aid India in achieving further targets.