The Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, has revealed the cause of mortality RATE among infants and mothers.
He disclosed that, the lack of access to healthcare is the main factor contributing to high maternal, infant and under five mortality in the country.
Osagie made this shocking revelation during the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) ministerial forum in Abuja.
As reported by NAN, the latest United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report titled “Situation of Women and Children in Nigeria” states that the country records 576 maternal mortality per 100,000 live births, while approximately 262,000 babies die at birth every year.
It was gathered that infant mortality currently stands at 69 per 1,000 live births, while under-five deaths is 128 per 1,000 live births with more than 64 per cent of the deaths caused by pneumonia, malaria and diarrhoea.
The minister of health noted that the figure is embarrassing, stating that the federal government is working toward extending healthcare to areas that lack services.
“it is embarrassing when you go to conferences and see that your country has some of the worst indices and that’s one of the reasons why this administration is looking at extending healthcare to areas where we have problems.
“The area where you see this maternal mortality mostly is the rural areas where they have zero access to healthcare and where you will see that in spite of preaching inclusion, many people are actually excluded from the health service delivery.
“That’s why we are pressing for expanded primary healthcare. If you examine the causes of this high maternal mortality and also the infant mortality and the under-five mortality, you find that most of it is due to lack of access.
There is no hospital there. Most of the women who deliver do so without skilled birth attendants, but once you have skilled birth attendants, maternal mortality reduces drastically.”
Stressing on emergencies, the minister said there were people who even though they deliver safely at home, suffer complications.
” Some may bleed severely, while some others may have obstructed labour and cannot deliver and wait till the next day to get to a capable treatment centre, which would be dangerous”.
Howbeit, he added that the National Emergency Medical Service and Ambulance Services (NEMSAS) was created to address such emergencies.
“You will just dial 112 and the ambulance with paramedics will come to wherever the patient lives, administer first aid and move to the nearest capable treatment centre where the problem will be solved.
“These are the measures that will reduce maternal mortality and under-five mortality.
“As far as the under-five mortality is concerned, the three main killers for children are diarrhoea, malaria and pneumonia.
“If a child has acute pneumonia or acute diarrhoea and you don’t take care of that child quickly, there is high risk so we can’t wait for two days or three days.
“So if they get to a medical centre or a PHC early enough, an experienced nurse can take care of that problem”.
