Sustained adolescent health education campaign mounted by the Kumasi Metropolitan Health Directorate to help bring down teenage pregnancy is paying off.

Dr. Mrs. Alberta Biritwum Nyarko, the Metropolitan Health Director, said teenage pregnancy was down to 5.3 per cent, last year, from the 2016’s 6.7 per cent.

She announced this at the annual health performance review meeting held by the directorate to critically examine the challenges and the way forward to improve the quality of healthcare.

It brought together health professionals and other stakeholders including non-governmental organizations.

Dr. Mrs. Biritwum Nyarko indicated that there was significant increase in family planning acceptance during the period.

She said contraceptive use shot up to 15.8 per cent from the previous year’s 14.7 per cent.

There was however, an increase in maternal deaths – cases rose to 111 from the 2016 total of 66.

She told the meeting that the institutional maternal mortality ratio grew from 211 per 100,000 births to 333 per 100,000 live births.

She attributed this to increased referrals to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) from outside the Ashanti Region – Western, Brong-Ahafo, Northern, Upper East and Upper West.

Still births, she said, were also up from 17.7 per cent to 20.7 per cent but expressed optimism that the inauguration of the state-of-the-art mother and baby unit, would help to radically reverse the trend.

Dr. Mrs. Biritwum Nyarko identified malaria, upper respiratory tract infections and hypertension as topping cases seen at the out-patients department of the facilities.