The fifth Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) has highlighted a nationwide overall drop in infant mortality rate from 97 per 1000 live births recorded in 2011 to 70 per 1000 live births.
 
The survey was jointly released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Tuesday, in Abuja.
 

Hauwa Mohammed cuddled her six months old baby, Muhammed Umaru, while waiting to be attended to at a health centre where she has gone to seek help.
The baby looks too small for his age, skinny, pale and with swollen cheeks and feet. These are symptoms of Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM).
Hauwa is one of many women accessing medical help for their children at the Community Management for Acute Malnutrition (CMAN) in the Out Patients Therapeutic Centre (OTP) in Nasarawo Health Clinic, Yola North, Adamawa State.

Nigeria continues to record high rate of malnutrition as a result of poverty across the country, the Nutrition Specialist, United Nations International Children's Fund (UNICEF) Philomena Irene has said.
 
Irene who made this known yesterday at a two-day UNICEF sponsored workshop with the theme, Investing in Child Malnutrition for the Future #StopchildmalnutritionNigeria in Yola, Adamawa State also said, most malnourished children come from poor home.

Head of the Women Friendly Initiative Dr Francis Eremutha says poverty is not the major cause of malnutrition in Nigeria, but a lack of knowledge of “how to eat well with what is available.”
He said this at a media forum on the implementation of the National Strategic Plan of Action for Nutrition (NSPAN) in the FCT, noting that Nigeria is among six countries that account for half of all child deaths from malnutrition worldwide.