| Guatemala City (Fides Service) - The situation in Guatemala, a country with a 2.3%, annual birth rate of a 5.6% rate of inflation and a precarious health system, is worsened by widespread poverty which causes many deaths from preventable diseases including respiratory infections, acute malnutrition and intestinal infections which affect mainly children under 5 and women.
Another emergency is a high maternal death rate one of the highest in Latin America due to three-month haemorrhaging and lack of assistance at delivery.
The local Catholic Church’s widespread activity in the field of healthcare is co-ordinated by the Bishops’ Commission for health pastoral, with a president and delegates from dioceses and apostolic Vicariates of Verapaz, Quetzaltenango, Suchitepequez-Retauleu, Santa Rosa, Peten, Isabal, Jalapa, San Marcos, Huehuetenango, Quiche, Escuintla, Solola and Jalapa.
The commission members supervise health pastoral in their respective areas and attend meetings every two months to share information and plan programmes to meet the different needs. One serious need is lack of mother/child care and lack of funds for new centres. In fact only a few areas have clinics and dispensaries for pregnant mothers and infant care and training centres for personnel to deliver babies.
To deal with another serious problem, the spread of HIV/AIDS, the Commission has launched a “Life fights AIDS” programme of prevention and counselling with centres in Coatepeque and Quetzltenango, and the western region.
(AP) (14/10/2004 Agenzia Fides; Righe:29; Parole:319)
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