Every year, an estimated 1 in 10 babies is born prematurely, which amounts to approximately 1.2 million children in the Region of the Americas.
Prematurity, defined as birth before the 37th week of gestation, is one of the leading causes of neonatal mortality, morbidity, and disability. Newborns face a significantly higher risk of complications — from breathing difficulties, infections, and poor growth to delays in neurological, school, and lifelong development.
Newborns, and children deserve safe care tailored to every stage of their lives.
Health professionals: your role is key to preventing avoidable harm.
Families play a key role in ensuring that newborns and children receive safe health care.
Mothers, fathers, and caregivers can contribute by keeping records of medications and symptoms, staying informed, asking questions, and voicing any concerns.
Join the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) for a regional webinar to mark World Patient Safety Day 2025 under the slogan “Patient safety from the start!”.
On World Patient Safety Day, it’s critical to highlight the need for safe care from the very beginning of life. Newborns and children require care tailored to their age, weight, developmental stage, health needs, and social context to prevent avoidable harm.
Every child and every newborn have the right to safe, quality health care from day one.
A single safety incident can have lifelong consequences for a child’s health and development.
Join the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) for a regional webinar to mark World Patient Safety Day 2025 under the slogan “Patient safety from the start!”.
When: 23 September 2025
Time: 10:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. (EDT)
Surveillance of congenital defects (CDs) consists of: case detection, data collection and submission, coding, classification, analysis, interpretation and dissemination of information. Developing surveillance systems allows countries to have their own data to assess the size of the problem, evaluate its impact from different perspectives and assess the effect of interventions.
Neural tube defects (NTDs) are the most common defects of the central nervous system, with a strong impact on infant morbidity and mortality.
These are some of the milestones that can be highlighted about their evolution:
- 70s: advances in medical/surgical therapies lead to a significant reduction of sequelae and disability.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), every year, about 8 million children are born with a birth defect in the world. Congenital anomalies cause 10 per cent of all newborn deaths and many of the babies who survive are at risk of carrying a lifelong disability if they do not have timely access to high-quality care.
However, the burden of death and disability differs by place of birth and is disproportionately high in low- and middle-income countries.
The mortality burden associated with congenital defects (CD) is relevant globally and regionally. In 2016, the global prevalence of CD reached 82,890,000 cases. One out of five deaths within the first 28 days of life is due to CD. In addition to neonatal mortality due to CD, it contributes to fetal mortality.
Congenital defects (CDs) are the second leading cause of neonatal mortality and a very important cause of disease and disability.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, there are more than 15 million births every year. According to estimates published in 2018, approximately 15 out of every 1,000 will be at risk of dying before their first birthday and 10 in 1,000 before their first month of life.
One in 5 of the deaths occurring within the first 28 days of life is due to some CD.