By Matthew Abi
#TrackNigeria -The National Primary Health Care and Development Agency NPHCDA has declared a state of public health concern on Maternal, Newborn and Child deaths occurring at the primary health care and community levels in the country today in Abuja.
According to Dr. Faisal Shuaib, the Executive Director, NPHCDA at the presentation of the NPHCDA approach towards achieving rapid reduction in Maternal and Child mortality in Nigeria, ” this state of public health concern is a step towards the reduction of child and maternal mortality in the country.
” Everyday in Nigeria, approximately 145 women die from preventable cause related pregnancy and childbirth.
” Similarly, approximately 2,300 children under 5 years die mainly from preventable cause, 1 out of every 10 children less than 5 years old that dies in the world is a Nigerian.
” We are outraged by this statistics and as such it is notable that this deaths do not make daily headlines in the press, nor raise the same emotions as plane crashes, this is probably because these deaths are occurring with the poor, most vulnerable and voiceless in our communities.
Having noted the high rate of maternal, newborn and under 5 child mortality and the insufficiency of our current efforts to reverse the trend, a decision to establish a National Coordination Centre within the NPHCDA to provide oversight on RMNCAH and N activities at the Primary Health Care level was made.
“The centre shall be called the National Emergency Maternal and Child Health Intervention Centre ( NEMCHIC) , and the center will work with the National Polio Emergency Operations Centre and transit polio resources towards RMNCAH and N intervention.
