By: Theresa Moses
The National Bureau of Statistics survey corroborated by United Nations Children’s Fund, (UNICEF), in the South-West states have rated Lagos, Osun, Ondo States as having the lowest case of infant mortality.
This revelation came on Thursday, 13th October, 2022 during a two-day media dialogue on the 2021 Multiple Indicator Cluster (MICS 6) data, organised by the National Orientation Agency, (NOA), Lagos State in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF held at the Kakanfo Conference Centre, Ibadan, Oyo State.
While speaking, UNICEF M4R Specialist, Oluwasola Olanipekun said “In South-West, under infant mortality, out of 63 per 1000 live birth, Lagos has 15, Osun 17 and Ondo 31 with lowest rate.
In the same vein, Health Specialist, Dr. Ijeoma Agbo, advocated the need for affected states to adopt the national recommendations of one primary healthcare facility per ward and make them functional in order to further reduce the present status.
She tasked governments of affected states to adopt necessary strategies to strengthen their health system towards further reducing the high rate of infant and child mortality.
“Though, governments of these states have introduced various meaningful health programmes, much more still needed to be done to save the lives of new born babies,” Agbo explained.
However, she called for improved awareness for expectant mothers to patronise health care facilities rather than unskilled delivery centres or individuals, which is a major factor responsible for the high mortality rate in some states.
Dr. Agbo further added that though, Lagos State has the lowest rate of child mortality, there is the need for more improvement, considering the population density and the cosmopolitan nature of the state.
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