CSOs task NAFDAC on zinc, antibiotics for children
The Partnership for Advocacy in Child and Family Health (PACFaH) is pushing for the adoption, implementation and funding of revised United Nations-approved drugs for the treatment of pneumonia and diarrhoea in children across the country. The guidelines suggest the use of Ampicillin dispersible tablets for treating pneumonia and zinc low osmolarity oral rehydration salt as […]
The Partnership for Advocacy in Child and Family Health (PACFaH) is pushing for the adoption, implementation and funding of revised United Nations-approved drugs for the treatment of pneumonia and diarrhoea in children across the country.
The guidelines suggest the use of Ampicillin dispersible tablets for treating pneumonia and zinc low osmolarity oral rehydration salt as first-line treatment for diarrhoea.
PACFaH, a coalition of civil society groups led by the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, on Thursday began canvassing the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) for creating "dedicated budget lines" to promote and support local use of both medications.
Pneumonia accounts for 14% of deaths in one in eight children who did before age five across the country, according to national health data. Diarrhoea accounts for a separate 9% of the deaths.
In talks with NAFDAC acting director-general Yetunde Oni, PSN-PACFaH programme director for strategy Remi Adeseun said, "The major reason for these preventable deaths is incomplete access to healthcare, particularly in rural areas."
"Healthcare entails availability of recommended essential drugs for addressing childhood killers such as pneumonia and diarrhoea," Adeseun added.
Risk factors for pneumonia in children include malnutrition, low birth weight under 2.5kg, lack of exclusive breastfeeding in the first four months of life, lack of measles vaccination in the first 12 months of life.
Other risk factors are household air pollution from cooking on biomass fuel and overcrowding when seven or more people share a household.