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8 October 2014
Question No. 232
Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament
Mr Alex Yam Ziming
MP for Chua Chu Kang GRC
Question:
To ask the Minister for Health (a) how many premature babies of pre-24 week gestational age are born annually in the last five years; (b) how many of these babies survived premature birth; and (c) whether the rate of survival of second trimester premature babies has improved significantly over the last decade.
Answer
1 From 2009 to 2013, between 2 to 5 premature babies were born annually with gestation age of less than 24 weeks, out of about 40,000 live births on average.
2 Among such premature babies born during 2008 to 2012, 48% survived beyond 1 year of age compared with 27% during the years 1998 to 2002. While the situation appears to have improved, given that the number of such babies is very small, we are unable to draw a definitive conclusion.