NIGERIA: Turai Yar'Adua Tasks FG, Unicef On State of Maternal, Child DeathsFebruary 18th 2009 Wife of the President, Turai Yar'Adua, on Monday called on relevant government agencies in the country to take measures that strengthen health related programmes and facilities to reduce high rate of maternal and newborn deaths. Yar'Adua made the call as she appealed to the Federal Ministry of Health and United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) to conduct new studies nationwide to ascertian the true state of maternal and child deaths that occur annually. This, according to her, become necessary for the country to really be sure of its progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Yar'Adua's advise was given when she launched the UNICEF's 2009 State of the World Children Report (SOWCR) in Abuja. The First Lady was giving backing to the submission of the Minister of Information and Communication, Dora Akunyili, who expressed worries that the UNICEF report on Nigeria did not reflect the concerted efforts of government to scale up health programmes that improve mother and children health status. According to Akunyili, "Nigeria has worked hard in the past eight years and is still working to reduce infant and child mortality compared to India and Bangladesh". She noted various efforts of government that include improved immunisation schedules, iodisation of salt, fortification of food with Vitamin A, improved coverage of exclusive breastfeeding and successful campaign against use of breast milk substitutes, among others, as some programmes targeted at improving child health. Akunyili noted that the reports she received from visiting some hospitals in the last three months have indicated contrary facts to what UNICEF presented about Nigeria. "I visited some hospitals three months ago, I am happy to report that I did not receive any report about any child that died in the hospital at birth," the President's wife also stated. She said it would be appropriate to carry out a new survey to know what actually is the true state of Nigeria's health indices. Source: AllAfrica.com 18 February 2009 http://allafrica.com/stories/200902170315.html |