Assam has achieved encouraging progress in strengthening maternal healthcare, with the share of maternal deaths attributed to sepsis declining from 21 per cent in July to 8 per cent in October. The figures mark a sharp improvement in the space of four months.
Health and Family Welfare Minister Ashok Singhal announced the achievement, describing it as another encouraging step towards safer motherhood in the state. The share fell to 13 per cent in August and 11 per cent in September before reaching 8 per cent, according to data shared by the minister.
Centre invites Assam to share its model
The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has taken note of the improvement and invited Assam to demonstrate its infection-control model to states reporting a high incidence of maternal sepsis deaths. The state is to present its experience at a virtual discussion with other states.
Sepsis is a life-threatening medical emergency that occurs when the body’s immune system responds in an extreme way to an infection. In maternal care, infections after delivery are among the leading preventable causes of death, which makes infection prevention one of the most effective interventions available to health systems.
What changed on the ground
The state government has introduced Standard Operating Procedures for Infection Prevention and Control, along with an Infection Prevention and Control Mechanism digital monitoring portal. The initiatives were launched by the Health Minister at Dibrugarh during the State Convention on Maternal Mortality Reduction, Infant Mortality Reduction and Infection Control.
The procedures provide standardised guidelines for infection prevention in critical maternal and newborn care areas, including labour rooms, maternity operation theatres, postnatal wards, Special Newborn Care Units and Newborn Stabilisation Units. The portal enables real-time monitoring and systematic review of infection-control practices across public health facilities.
Singhal commended the efforts of doctors, nurses, frontline health workers and the National Health Mission team, and reiterated the government’s commitment to further strengthening infection prevention, timely detection and effective treatment. The progress sits alongside a wider improvement in the state’s maternal health indicators: Assam’s Maternal Mortality Ratio has fallen from 480 deaths per one lakh live births to 84, below the national average of 88, according to the Sample Registration System Bulletin.
Assam has also signed a Rs 600-crore deal for a proton therapy centre in Guwahati, while Guwahati Medical College performed the Northeast’s first government liver transplant. The sepsis figures add a public health success to the state’s growing list of medical milestones.
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