How to tackle high death rate amongst children

There is urgent need for all stake holders to stem the tide of  high mortality rate in the country, especially among children. According to the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), no fewer than 400,000 children die in the country annually, especially from pneumonia and diarrhoea. The group in conjunction with eight non-governmental organisations comprising […]

There is urgent need for all stake holders to stem the tide of  high mortality rate in the country, especially among children.
According to the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), no fewer than 400,000 children die in the country annually, especially from pneumonia and diarrhoea.
The group in conjunction with eight non-governmental organisations comprising the Partnership for Advocacy in Child and Family Health (PACFaH), lamented that Nigeria has one of the highest burdens of malnutrition in Africa and globally.
They said records showed that a total of 201,000 under age-5 children in Nigeria (representing 19%) die annually from diarrhea while 277,000 (representing 16%) die yearly from pneumonia.
To checkmate the negative trend, they called on government at all levels to, as a matter of urgency, implement global recommendations and guidelines, especially the 2012 United Nations Commission on Life-Saving Commodities (UNCoLSC), which were reviewed and approved by the World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Children’s Funds (UNICEF) and the Paediatric Association of Nigeria (PAN) for the treatment of childhood pneumonia and diarrhoea.
The advocacy group also canvassed for the adoption of the National Strategic Plan of Action on Nutrition (NSPAN) and implementation of the NSPAN with specific focus on maternal and child nutrition component of the plan as well as increased funding for maternal and child nutrition at the Ministries of Health and Agriculture.
According to them, the delay in the adoption and full implementation of these life-saving guidelines has been “largely due to inadequate political will, regulatory bottlenecks, low awareness and absence of specific budget lines at all levels of healthcare for the procurement of the recommended commodities, that is, amoxicillin dispersible tablet-Amoxicillin DT-and Zinc/Low Osmolarity Oral Rehydration Salt (Zinc/LO-ORS).
In order to significantly address the unnecessary and untimely child deaths in Nigeria, the group made the following  recommendations:
The adoption and use of amoxicillin dispersible tablet (Amoxicillin DT) and Zinc/Low Osmolarity Oral Rehydration Salt (Zinc/LO-ORS) co-pack as first-line treatment for childhood pneumonia and diarrhoea respectively, in line with the revised WHO/UNICEF treatment guidelines.
Concerted efforts by the Ministries of Health, National Planning Commission, the Budget Office and Finance to create specific budget line in the Ministry of Health for the procurement of the essential life-saving commodities:  Amoxicillin DT and Zinc/LO-ORS.
Timely release and judicious utilization of funds allocated for the procurement of the aforementioned essential commodities.
The scale-up and increased utilization of the recommended childhood diarrhoea commodity (Zinc/LO-ORS).
Advocate for adequate and wide-spread training to ensure that frontline health workers are knowledgeable about diagnosing correctly and effectively treating childhood pneumonia and diarrhea, using Amoxicillin DT and Zinc/LO-ORS respectively.