Cuban westernmost province with the lowest infant mortality rate in the country

PINAR DEL RIO, Cuba, January 2 (ACN) Pinar del Rio concluded 2025 with the lowest infant mortality rate in Cuba, at 4.7 per 1,000 live births.

Amid a complex context of arboviral disease incidence among children, especially in the neonatal period and under five months, this result proves to the effectiveness of multisectoral work focused on mother-child health, from primary to secondary healthcare.

Dr. Maria Teresa Machin Lopez-Portilla, head of the Maternal and Child Health Program (PAMI by its Spanish acronym) in the province, explained to the Cuban News Agency that the municipalities of Sandino, Mantua, and Minas de Matahambre reported no deaths during the past year.

Likewise, the province did not register any direct maternal deaths, that is, deaths due to obstetric causes.

She specified that the main health issues faced during the year were related to hypertensive disorders in pregnancy, intrauterine growth restriction, and preterm birth.

The sustained work of family doctors and nurses, obstetrician-gynecologists, general practitioners, pediatricians, social workers, psychologists, and specialists involved in monitoring women from the preconception stage stands out in the region.

The strengthening of PAMI was aided, for example, by the commission for the care of severe maternal morbidity, municipal consultations for pregnant women with obstetric risks, the work in pediatric therapy and in the Neonatology service of the Abel Santamaría Cuadrado Provincial Hospital, which achieved a 99 % survival rate, she detailed.

Maternity homes, including the Justo Legón Padilla Regional Home, were also responsible for monitoring high-risk pregnancies, preventing anemia in underweight women, and managing chronic diseases; while the medical genetics network became a strength in all territories, she added.

Machín López-Portilla indicated that 3,621 births were reported, a figure 10 higher than the previous year.