Osun To Begin Campaign On Maternal And Newborn Child Immunisation

The Stakeholders in the State of Osun health sector, on Wednesday November 12, 2014 has promised more commitment to a healthy living among residents in the state by curbing challenges associated with maternal and newborn babies.
The stakeholders met during this year campaigns for Maternal and Newborn Child Health Week (MNCHW).
The meeting which had in attendance the Religious leaders, Educationists, Health officers, among other stakeholders was held to discuss on how the WNCHW will be successful.
Addressing the gathering, Mr James Oloyede the state Nutrition Officer and Spokesperson for MNCHW said “the programme is about maternal newborn and child health week and it is done in the month of May and November every year.
According to Oloyede, “It is a week that is set aside to deliver high impact low cost child survival and maternal intervention aimed at reducing maternal death and to bring an overall improvement in the health of the community.
“It will be done in over 800 government owned public health facilities in the state.
“We have the fixed post approach where the caregivers will bring their children or ward to receive this intervention at health centres and we also have outreach posts which include churches, mosques and schools, this includes the private schools.
“In this round of MNCH we are targeting about 100,000 children to benefit from the intervention which includes administration of Vitamin A supplements, Immunization, screening for malnutrition, deworming and free birth registration.
“Mothers will receive tetanus toxoid (TT) anti malaria and insecticide treated nets for pregnant mothers apart from family planning commodities.
“We will be promoting key household practices such as exclusive breast feeding and appropriate food supplements.
“We encourage parents, guardians to bring their children to benefit from this programme and we urge religious leaders to help us inform people in various places of worship to allow our health workers do
their job.
“We are not out to harm anyone, we have the government backing in this campaign and it is for the safety of our children who are our future”, he said.
Mr Adewole Adewoye, Health Educator at the ministry of Health said that in 2013, about 2million children died between the ages of zero to five years in Nigeria.
“Malnutrition is the highest cause of infant mortality in Nigeria rising to about 55%. We want a reduction in infant and child mortality in the state and in the nation at large.
“In May, we were able to cover 94% of children in the state, in this round; we are aiming above 100% through this public intervention.
“We have trained some health workers and we have purchased about 100 public address mega phones which will be given to all the local governments in the state to aid the campaign”, he said
BIOREPORTS gathered that the health intervention was for children between the ages of 0 to 17 years old and that MNCH week will be implemented from November 17 to 21.
BIOREPORTS