New Delhi, Dec 3 (IANS): The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is working on multiple projects to reduce the neonatal mortality rate, and prevent stillbirths in India, the Centre informed on Tuesday.

In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, the Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Prataprao Jadhav, said that ICMR has identified neonatal mortality as a national health research priority, and it has undertaken several key research projects on the health of newborns and children.

Under its ‘Sankalp’ programme, the ICMR aims to “strengthen, implement and monitor the target of achieving single-digit neonatal mortality.”

The apex body has also launched research to reduce stillbirths.

“It is also developing a project on building evidence and designing solutions to prevent stillbirths in the country,” Jadhav said.

It also did important studies on pediatric kidney diseases and intravenous antibiotics in the treatment of uncomplicated neonatal bacterial sepsis.

“The ICMR has also undertaken a project to design, implement, and optimise a model to provide comprehensive care across the first 1,000 days of life,” Jadhav said.

Further, the MoS said that ICMR’s National Institute for Research in Reproductive and Child Health (NIRRCH) has also undertaken a multicentric study on the newborn sickle screening programme.

It will be implemented across seven sites in six states -- Rajasthan, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Gujarat -- with a high prevalence of sickle cell disease in 2019, the MoS said.

Other research under the ICMR-NIRRCH includes “a study on population-based birth defect surveillance in linkage with Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK) programme in rural blocks of Palghar district in Maharashtra in collaboration with state health system,” Jadhav said.