The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) says that approximately one million Nigerian children die annually before their fifth birthday due to various sicknesses.
Dr Adedolapo Fasawe, the Mandate Secretary, Health Services and Environment Secretariat (HSES), said this on Friday at a news conference to kickstart the 2024 FCT Maternal Newborn and Child Health Week (MNCHW) vaccination.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the MNCHW vaccination exercise, which is free for children from age 0 to 59 months, is scheduled to begin on July 20 and end on July 24.
Represented by Dr Babagana Adam, the Permanent Secretary, FCTA, Fasawe said that the alarming rate of death among children between ages 0 to 59 months had compelled the FCTA to continually carry out the vaccination exercise annually.
Fasawe said that malnutrition prevalence among this set of children in the FCT also made it necessary to carry out the exercise to make Nigeria’s children free from all forms of diseases.
“The rate of Stunting is 21.2 per cent, Underweight 12.1 per cent, and Wasting 3.0 per cent.
“Wasting reflects Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM), which is still unacceptably high to meet up the World Health Organisation (WHO) global target of lower than 5% for GAM by 2025 (NDHS 2018).
“Micronutrient malnutrition is also prevalent. Evaluation by the United Nations International Children Education Fund (UNICEF) in the last SMART survey published in 2017 showed that Vitamin A coverage for FCT was 40.6 per cent which is far below the minimum 90 per cent target.
“Exclusive Breastfeeding Rate in FCT is 52 per cent with MICS 2017 report. The maternal mortality ratio in Nigeria is 512 deaths per 100,000 live births (NDHA, 2018), and 408 deaths per 100,000 live births in FCT.
“These rates are unacceptably poor and preventive measures need to be supported and promoted to be able to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals,” she stressed.
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