Health Minister, Prof. Isaac Adewole, on Monday, remarked that the country’s mortality in children Under-Five “is still very unacceptable’’.
 
In his remarks at the advocacy meeting on reproductive health in Abuja, organised by the office of the wife of the President, the minister stressed the urgency for the government to invest in health as it did in other infrastructure.
 
He said the administration was focusing attention on the basic health care system and intended to achieve eight million person target in three years.
 
The minister hailed the initiatives of the Wife of the President, Mrs Aisha Buhari, on reproductive health and pledged the ministry’s support for the programme.
 
He urged the wives of governors in the country to partner the wife of the president on the programme.
 
The UNICEF Country Representative, Mrs Daniele Ironside, said the UN was delighted for the initiatives of the wife of the President on issues concerning the child.
 
She noted that about half the rate of child and maternal mortality in Nigeria was traceable to malnutrition, noting that the trend should be corrected.
 
According to her, over 30 million Nigerian children are stunted, representing 20 percent in Africa and 7 percent in the world.
 
She observed that malnourished children had low intelligence and performed poorly in school but added that for every N1,000 invested in nutrition there was a N16,000 return.
 
The UN chief said that 450,000 of the estimated 2.5 million malnourished children in the country were susceptible to die if nothing was done to save them.
 
Her views were corroborated by another UNICEF official, Mrs Georgina Feketa, who added that the organization was implementing a marching policy for every fund released in the country to curb malnutrition since 2013.
 
The Executive Secretary of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr Faisal Shuaib, noted that 3,000 children Under-5 died every day in the country at two deaths per minute which was alarming.
 
Read more at https://www.pmnewsnigeria.com/2017/10/09/health-minister-unicef-others-u...