Every year, Nigeria loses an estimate of 59,000 women to predictable and easily prevented deaths. Each week, 1,131 women die in childbirth. In the last seven days, 1,131 Nigerian families have lost mothers, friends, sisters and daughters to pregnancy. Every week, more children are forced to grow up without mothers, and are subjected to the difficulties that entails. These children are more likely to die before their fifth birthday.
While Nigeria continues to grapple with poor health system that has caused many of its citizens to access care in foreign countries like the Unite States, United Kingdom and Turkey, there seems to be a ray of hope, as private healthcare providers like Reddington Hospital Group are filling the gaps in the country with the aim of giving Nigerians state-of-the-art healthcare just as it is in many developed nations.
The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, has said the federal government has concluded plans to improve the standard of midwifery practices in the country.
This is coming as a Nollywood actor and producer, Jim Iyke, was unveiled as the Special Envoy/Goodwill Ambassador for Maternal, Newborn and Child health.
Adewole made this known yesterday during the commemoration of the 2017 International Day of the Midwife (IDM) in Abuja.
The Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition, has appealed to the federal government to increase taxes on sugary and processed foods to combat malnutrition in the country.
Sandy Thomas, the Director of the panel, made the appeal at a discussion on nutrition in Abuja on Wednesday.
She expressed regret over the increasing number of malnourished and stunted children especially in the North East and North West of the country as a result of the consumption of those foods.
The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, has said the federal government has concluded plans to improve the standard of midwifery practices in the country.
This is coming as a Nollywood actor and producer, Jim Iyke, was unveiled as the Special Envoy/Goodwill Ambassador for Maternal, Newborn and Child health.
Two out of every three Nigerian child are not eating the right food suitable for their health, the latest National Demographic Health Survey reveals.
Revealing this at the start of a three-day capacity building workshop for health editors and reporters on challenges in the health and nutrition sector in Nigeria, organised by the Civil Society Sacling Up Nutrition un Nigeria (CS-SUNN) and PACFaH in Kaduna, the programme director CS-SUNN, Beatrice Eluaka said, malnutrition has become endemic in Nigeria and no part of the country is immune to the problem of malnutrition.
Nigeria is ranked 7th among 57 countries classified as facing a critical shortage of health workers, it was learnt Tuesday
.
According to the Minister of Health, Prof Isaac Adewole the country has a shortage of 144,000 health workers. Nigeria is ranked second in Africa behind Ethiopia with 152,000.
Presently, the country boasts of 240,000 nurses and midwives and by 2030 the country will be needing 149,852 doctors and 471,353 nurses and midwives.
Insurgents have destroyed about 788 health facilities in the region. In Borno 48 health workers have been killed and over 250 injured. The state has lost up to 40% of its facilities and only a third of those left in Borno state remain functional.
Attrition rates of health workers have also played a role. Over the past two years, Borno state has lost 35% of its doctors to other states.
The Federation of Muslim Women Association of Nigeria, FOMWAN, has called for an immediate increase in the national health budget.
The association, a member of the Partnership for Advocacy in Child and Family Health (PACFaH) project, said that said the budget should not only be increased but should be released on time and used judiciously.
The President of the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives (NANNM), Abdulrafiu Adeniji has decried the poor state of health facilities in the country, arguing it has made midwives not to perform optimally on their jobs.
He therefore called for a stronger health system and well-equipped facilities that make healthcare accessible, especially those in rural communities.
