1 Million Children Die Annually In Nigeria Within First Month of Birth – UNICEF

….Country loses 2300 U5 Children Everyday

Estimated 70 Percent of Deaths Preventable

From Paul Orude Bauchi

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says an estimated 1 million children die annually in Nigeria within the first month of being born, 10 percent of global total.

Oluseyi Olosunde, Health Officer, UNICEF Field Office, Bauchi, disclosed this at a one-day Media Dialogue on Child Mortality in Bauchi, Gombe and Taraba States, held at Crispan Hotel, Jos.

The country’s neonatal mortality rate (the probability of a child dying within the first month of life) is 41 per 1,000 live births, a far cry from the global target of 17.

Similarly, Nigeria’s Infant mortality rate is 63 per 1,000 live births while under five mortality rate is 110 per 1,000 live births respectively, he disclosed.

The UNICEF Health Officer revealed that every day, the country loses about 2,300 under five children with most of these deaths occurring in rural areas.

In Nigeria, no fewer than 157 under five children die every day in rural areas, almost double the rate for urban areas at 92.

Presenting  a slide on the Trends of child mortality in Gombe, Bauchi and Taraba States, Olusunde, expressed concern that the National Demographic Health Survey (NDHS) for 2023 indicated that neonatal mortality rates is rising in the three north eastern states.

Olusunde revealed that the neonatal death increased from 38 per 1,000 births five years ago to 48 per 1000 live births in Bauchi State, 37 per 1000 in Taraba in 2018 to 38 while Gombe rate remains stagnant 45 per 1,000 live births in 2023.

Whereas infant mortality, according to the NDHS 2023, showed a drop from 104 to 81 and under five deaths from 189 to 157 for Gombe, the rate of child deaths in Bauchi and Taraba remain significantly at 77 and 125 and 64 and 126 respectively, he said.

Olusunde said that sadly, an estimated 70% of these deaths are preventable saying all stakeholders must work together to prevent child deaths in fulfilment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) number 3.

He said child mortality can be reduced through interventions beyond the health sector and urged the media practitioners to join hands with other stakeholders to set the agenda to ensure a reversal of child mortality in the three states.

Speaking on Drivers of child Mortality in the North East, Dr Amos Audu, Health Specialist, UNICEF Bauchi Field Office, disclosed that half of Under Five deaths are new- born babies who die the first two days of being born.

Audu said the major causes of death of under five include pneumonia, malaria, lack of oxygen, birth complications which can be prevented with 100 percent vaccination.

He said other underlying factors causing deaths of under five children include poverty, poor maternal health which manifest in anemia, infections, lack of antenatal, poor access to quality health.

Other causes of child deaths, he stated, are cultural practices such as traditional birth attendance, low education inadequate nutrition and low awareness.

In her presentation entitled Child mortality – exploring a hydra-headed menace (infant, neonatal, U5),  Dr Ruth Adah, a pediatrician with the Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH), noted that a child is a combination of the spiritual, socio-cultural, morally, biological and Legal entity.

Adah said although the Nigerian child is guaranteed protection under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, several children in Nigeria are in need of protection for survival.

She explained that Nigeria as a whole has bad child mortality rates but Bauchi, Gombe and Taraba states were slightly higher than other states in the country.

Adah commended UNICEF Bauchi Field office for organizing the Media Dialogue saying the media help to educate people about child deaths and carry out advocacies to draw the needed political will to address it.

“Children are usually voiceless in our society,” she observed.

“Few speak for them. Journalists with media houses have wider reach to engage with the public- mothers, fathers, families, traditional rulers – once you bring this thing to the fore it becomes a talking point.

“The media practitioners can push this agenda. Media houses have contact with politicians and policy makers”