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NGF decries high maternal, child mortality rate in Nigeria

By Nkechi Onyedika-Ugoeze, Abuja
17 June 2017   |   4:21 am
The Nigeria Governor’s Forum (NGF) has expressed worries over the dwindling quality of healthcare services and the increasing rate of maternal and child mortality in the country.

Director-General, Nigerian Governors’ Forum, Asishana Okauru (left); Senior Technical Adviser to the Minister of Health, Yewande Adeshina and Executive Director/Chief Executive Officer, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Faisal Shuab, during a workshop meeting with executive secretaries, states and primary healthcare boards in Abuja.PHOTO: LUCY LADIDI ELUKPO

The Nigeria Governor’s Forum (NGF) has expressed worries over the dwindling quality of healthcare services and the increasing rate of maternal and child mortality in the country.
 
Speaking at a meeting between the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency with Executive secretaries of State Primary Healthcare Boards in Abuja, Director General, NGF, Mr Asishana Okauru decried the high rate of diarrhea, malaria, lower respiratory track infections, tuberculosis, HIV, especially amongst children and women in the country

“In 2015, life expectancy in Nigeria was around 53 and 56 years for men and women respectively, while Nigeria constitutes only about 2 percent to the world population, it contributes up to 10 percent to maternal mortality in the world.

 
Okauru pledged the Governors commitment to implementation of the Primary Health Care Under One Roof policy.In his address, the Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer NPHCDA, Faisal Shuaib National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, NPHCDA, noted that Nigeria loses 3,000 women and children under the age of five daily to preventable diseases due to poor health system.
 
Shuaib insisted that Primary Healthcare remains the foundation for reasonable and sustainable changes to the poor health indicators in the sector, since it deals with these preventable diseases.

He said, “Nigeria’s poor health outcomes in critical areas is best reflected by the fact that that approximately 3,000 women and under 5 children die daily in the country.“This implies that in each state represented here, approximately 2,400 women and children die every month, 80 per day, from causes which are preventable.”

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