The wife of the Cross River State governor, Dr. Linda Ayade, has said cases of infant mortality are falling in the state.
She made this known on Thursday in Calabar during the official flag-off of Maternal Newborn and Child Health Week.
According to Linda, who was represented by the Director-General of the Cross River State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr. Janet Ekpenyong, the infant mortality rate is going down in Cross River State because of the proactive measures we have been putting in place to ensure children between ages 0 to 5 years are immunised against vaccine-preventable diseases.
“All these high impact interventions are helping us achieve that and visits to health facilities have decreased thereby reducing patronage of health facilities.
“For so many years now, there has been no outbreak of diseases in the state, and exercises like this have helped the state tremendously over the years.”
Linda said the target for the exercise, which was the first for this year, was to ensure that no child in the state within 0 to 5 years, as well as pregnant women, were left out.
She also said that the week would afford the health workers the opportunity to deworm children and give them Vitamin A supplementations to build their immunity at a tender age, adding that the exercise would take place simultaneously in all the 18 local government areas and communities in the state.
At least, 900,000 women and infants were expected to benefit from the exercise.
