Revista RANA edicion 2018 - IFMSA Panamá APEMCONI

32
Sustainable Development Goals for Latin American and Caribbean
physicians and medical students: Is reducing maternal mortality
possible among our countries?
María José Jaramillo Cartwright
AEMPPI Ecuador
Vice President for Internal
Affairs.
Summary:
Currently there are twenty-three thousand maternal deaths per
year in Latin America and the Caribbean, a worrisome situation
that could be improved with the accomplishment of the third SDG.
Considering our region has many social and economic factors
implied in our progress of the SDGs, we need to organize ourselves
as health professionals and medical students to surpass that
barrier and our authorities lack of involvement.
Article:
Sustainable Development Goals are a set of goals created by the
United Nations that seek a universally applicable strategy to rectify
economic, social and environmental aspects [1] [2]. The third
SDG, Good Health and Well-being, may be one of the most
important for health related professionals, especially on Latin
America and the Caribbean, with goals such as reducing maternal
mortality in a 75%.
Currently, there are around twenty-three thousand maternal
deaths per year in our region, a critical situation [3]. PAHO’s
reports have shown that although 11 countries have made
progress in reducing this rate, no country is even close to accomplish
the SDG, nor the previous Millenium Development Goal [4].
There has been meager progress in adolescent pregnancies
prevention, abortion, maternal health, sexually-transmitted infections
and HIV [4].
Nevertheless, we
need to consider that
Latin America and the
Caribbean may be one
of the regions with the
most hiatuses regarding
realities and
indicators because of
strident facts about the
existence of poverty,
hunger, defective
health systems, poor
education, and decaying
economies. Additionaly,
there are
extremely significant
gaps when it comes to availability, quality and access to comprehensive
sexual education [4], or even education at all.
Conclusions:
1.Reducing maternal health is fundamental for Latin
America and the Caribbean, given the high rates our
region has.
2.There is a lack of availability of resources in our
region’s health care scenario, which possibly relates to
our lack of accomplishment of the SDGs.
3.We need to determine national and regional priorities,
demanding to our authorities what we need as health
care professionals to accomplish SDGs.
References
There is no denial that
there are significant
disparities in progress
of the achievement of
SDGs in our region due
to external factors.
Despite that, it may be
also our responsibility
as medical students
and physicians to
reduce those indicators,
and take action to
improve our reality. We
need to strive for their
accomplishment,
demand resources and
programs to authorities,
and determine
national and regional
priorities based on our
necessities.
[1] UN. About the Sustainable Development Goals - United Nations Sustainable
Development [Internet]. United Nations. United Nations; [cited 2018Oct29].
Available from: http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/
[2] UNDP. Sustainable Development Goals [Internet]. UNDP in Latin America
and the Caribbean. [cited 2018Oct29]. Available from: http://www.latinamerica.undp.org/content/rblac/en/home/post-2015.html
[3] Acosta A, Cabezas E, Chaparro J. Present and future of maternal mortality
in Latin America. International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics.
2000Jul1;70(1):125–31.
[4] PAHO. 11 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have reduced
maternal mortality, new UN data show [Internet]. PAHO. 2014 [cited
2018Oct29]. Available from: https://www.paho.org/hq/index.php?option=com_-
content&view=article&id=9552:2014-11-countries-latin-america-caribbean-reduced-maternal-mo
rtality-new-data-show&Itemid=1926&lang=fr