An infant mortality rate in children under one year of age of 5.4 per thousand live births was reported in the province of Las Tunas in the first six months of 2023, which, although below the national average, is not what is aspired to in such an important health indicator.

Las Tunas, Cuba: In this period, 11 infant deaths are reported, with 243 births less than in the same period of the previous year, and the deaths are located in the municipalities of Manatí, Jesús Menéndez, Colombia, Amancio, and Las Tunas, while Majibacoa, Jobabo, and Puerto Padre maintain their infant mortality rate at zero.

This was revealed during the last Government Council meeting in the province of Las Tunas, which revealed that one of the major problems affecting this sensitive health indicator is adolescent pregnancy, whose rate is 68.9 per 1,000 girls between 15 and 18 years of age, with the highest incidence in the territories of Jobabo, Jesús Menéndez, and Majibacoa.

The other indicators of the Mother and Child Program (PAMI) behaved acceptably, even during a complex scenario due to the lack of human resources and logistic insurance, and a notable morbidity as a consequence of social problems.

The birth rate, which refers to the number of live births per thousand inhabitants, was 7.8, two points below the previous rate, and 243 births less, while the general fertility rate decreased from 40.4 to 36.4 per thousand women of childbearing age. The fertility rate by age is higher in the 20 to 24 age group, which is the appropriate maternal stage, followed by the 25 to 29 age group, except in the municipality of Manatí with a high rate in adolescence, as well as the territories of Jesús Menéndez, Jobabo, and Amancio, which implies a higher maternal and infant risk.

In the case of the average number of children per woman, which constitutes the total fertility rate, the indicator is below two children per mother, so there are many women with only one child.

One of the most notable problems concerning pregnant women is the instability and lack of variety in the supply of fruits, snacks, and desserts for the feeding of pregnant women in the maternity homes of the province, and due to problems with the supply of other foods, the nutritional requirements are not met in the maternity wards of the two general hospitals Ernesto Guevara and Guillermo Domínguez, in Puerto Padre.

The Governing Council instructed the Education Directorate to develop exhaustive analyses to determine the causes that influence the high number of pregnant adolescents and to draw up strategies to transform this situation, and the Health Directorate, for its part, must study the technical indicators of PAMI and work on its transformation, which includes the adoption of measures to solve the variety and quality of food in the maternity homes.