6895: University reaches out to help Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: nozier <nozier@tradewind.net>

 University reaches out to help Haiti
 McMaster obstetrics project aims to cut down maternal death and
disability

 HAMILTON - McMaster University's expertise in maternal health and
childbirth is being exported to Haiti. Dr. Henry Muggah, a professor of
obstetrics and gynecology, is heading a $1.7 million, five-year project
aimed at reducing the toll of death and           disability among
childbearing women in Haiti and their newborns.  ''The situation is
tragic,'' Muggah said.  ''The risk of dying as a result of childbirth in
Haiti is among the highest in  the world - more than 100 times greater
than the risk of dying in Canada
  and the United states.''  Estimates suggest 500 - 750 Haitian women
die for every 100,000 births. In Ontario, the ratio is five. The death
rate is the highest of the Americas, rivaling those of many African and
Asian states. McMaster's faculty of health sciences is entering into a
five-year partnership with the State University of Haiti's school of
medicine and  pharmacy.  The project is dedicated to the women of Haiti,
said Muggah, former chief of obstetrics and gynecology at St. Joseph's
Healthcare.
Over the next five years, doctors, nurses and midwives from McMaster
will work with their counterparts in Haiti and International Child Care,
a  Haiti-based non-governmental organization (NGO). The two universities
will also exchange faculty.