Lagos urges mass use of mosquito nets

NIGERIA has recorded a 42 per cent decrease in maternal deaths due to pregnancy-related complications between 2008 and 2011, according to a report on global maternal and child mortality released at the just-concluded United Nations Summit on Non- Communicable Diseases (NCDs) and published in The Lancet medical journal.

Also, the Lagos State government has urged households in the state to ensure at least 80 per cent utilisation of the Long Lasting Insecticidal Nets (LLIN) being distributed in the state.

The programme in which 4.2 million LLINs are to be distributed to over 2.1 million households ends today. The government therefore called on residents, who are yet to benefit from the Global Fund (GF) and Roll Back Malaria initiative, to seize the opportunity.

However, the country has not made much progress in checking child mortality. According to The Lancet report, the fraction of deaths in sub-Saharan Africa has increased from 33 per cent (3·9 million of 11·6 million) in 1990 to 49 per cent (3·5 million of 7·2 million) in 2011.

In fact, Nigeria, Republic of the Congo, and Ethiopia accounted for the   slowest rate of decline. “For child mortality, most countries have a faster rate of decline than the worldwide rate because of the concentration of births and child deaths in key sub-Saharan African countries with slow rates of decline including the Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, and Ethiopia, ” the report said.

According to the report, no country in sub-Saharan Africa is expected to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Four to reduce the under-five mortality rate by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015 and the target for MDG Five to reduce the maternal mortality ratio by three-quarters during the same period.

“Even though progress on reducing maternal and child mortality in most countries is accelerating, most developing countries will take many years past 2015 to achieve the targets of the MDGs 4 and 5.”

Commenting on the report, Minister of State for Health, Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate, said the success was due to improved access to skilled birth attendants by pregnant mothers through the Midwives Service Scheme (MSS) and Community Health Workers  (CHW).

-Guardian

Posted by admin on Sep 26 2011. Filed under Headlines. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry