AWKA—MORE than 700 babies die daily in Nigeria due to lack of hygiene
to ward off preventable infections at birth, an official of the Federal
Ministry of Health, Mrs. Evelyn Agbanyim has said.
She identified the major causes of neonatal deaths in Nigeria to
include low birth weight, birth asphyxia and infections, which account
for 80 per cent of deaths among children.
Agbanyim, who spoke at an awareness seminar in Awka on how to stem
the tide of neonatal mortality in Nigeria, attributed the development to
ignorance, poor funding and ineffective application of life-saving
neonatal commodities for women and children’s health.
According to her, the Federal Government decided to carry the
campaign to the relevant stakeholders in the country following the
worrisome situation, adding that those targeted were policy makers,
religious and traditional rulers, professional associations and
regulatory bodies and the media.
She said: “Over the last decade, progress in addressing the high rate
of neonatal mortality in Nigeria has been rather slow due to skills
gap, poor referral network, inadequate training of health personnel,
poor policy implementation and inadequate supply of the commodities.”
According to her, maintaining the current trend will not
significantly reduce neonatal mortality and so, there is need to
accelerate efforts towards adequate funding to redress the situation.
She observed that despite in interventions in the past, much remained
to be done to ensure access, affordability and availability of the
commodities to the most vulnerable group in the country, adding that one
of the major barriers of access to essential healthcare services in
Nigeria was shortage and inequitable distribution of appropriate cadres
of health work force to deliver the services where they were most
needed.
Vanguard
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