Call to tackle child mortality, improve local healthcare systems heightens

To tackle child mortality rate across Nigeria, there is a need for strategic shifts and increased advocacy, to achieve equitable coverage with the quality of pre- and post-natal programmes.

Nigeria currently leads in a wide range of child mortality metrics attributed to several causes including active lower respiratory infections, prematurity, birth asphyxia and birth trauma, malaria and diarrheal diseases, amongst others.

Hence, during a tour to public healthcare facilities in Calabar, Health Manager, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Nigeria, Martin Dohlsten, called for a radical overhaul of newborn programmes and the nation’s primary healthcare system, as measures to meet up with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3.2 of putting an end to preventable deaths of newborns and children under five years of age by 2030 –

“To achieve the SDG 3.2 target by 2030, Nigeria needs to rapidly accelerate under-five mortality rate reduction from 1.8 per cent to 16.5 per cent per year. To accomplish this, Nigeria needs a tailored approach. There must be a greater focus on the quality of care around birth and care of small and sick newborns and an increase in institutional deliveries.”

“We must also learn to leverage primary health care as a vehicle for integrated service delivery, by building seamless linkages between secondary care and district hospital strengthening,” he added.

Dohlsten acknowledged that the numbers associated with child mortality cases in Nigeria were very troubling. He believes a conscious and consistent effort to tackle the longstanding issues could give the nation a much-needed boost in battle against infant mortality.

“In Nigeria, 79 percent of newborn deaths are due to three preventable causes – infections, complications during childbirth, mainly asphyxia and prematurity. Nationwide, 30 percent of infant mortality cases were caused by delivery problems with 50 percent of deaths coming in the first day. Overturning these alarming statistics requires a combination of wider coverage and improved quality of our existing healthcare systems and programmes to hasten progress and make greater impact,” Dohlsten added.

“In response to UNICEF and WHO’s Every Newborn Action Plan goal, the Government’s Federal and State Ministries of Health outlined the Nigeria Every Newborn Action Plan with an aim to end preventable newborn deaths by expanding access to essential, comprehensive and community-based newborn care. Through these initiatives thousands of pregnant women and newborns have been impacted annually,” she said.

Social Behavioural Change Specialist, UNICEF Lagos Field Office, Aderonke Akinola-Adewole however called on the media to lead advocacy campaigns that birth social movements for policymakers and key stakeholders to make healthcare for children available, affordable and accessible.

“The media has great power to address barriers and amplify opportunities for impact in our healthcare system. They can mobilise caregivers and communities through their platforms and educate the public with the right messages. The media can also act as an accountability partner to our policymakers. In all, children are our priority, change is the reality and collaboration is the required strategy,” she added.