Nigeria has third world’s highest infant mortality rate
Nearly ten percent of new-born deaths in the world last year occurred in Nigeria, a new report by the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) has revealed.
According to the report, five countries accounted for half of all new-born deaths last year, with Nigeria third in the list. These are India (24 percent), Pakistan (10 percent), Nigeria (nine percent), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (four percent) and Ethiopia (three percent). Most new-born deaths occurred in two regions: Southern Asia (39 percent) and sub-saharan Africa (38 percent), allafrica.com reported.
The report showed that 15,000 children died globally before their fifth birthday in 2016, with 46 percent of the deaths (7.000) occurring in the first 28 days of life.
The World Health Organization issued a press statement on the new study titled: Levels and Trends in Child Mortality 2017.
The study reveals that although the number of children dying before the age of five is at a new low 5.6 million in 2016 compared to nearly 9.9 million in 2000 — the proportion of under-five deaths in the new-born period has increased from 41 percent to 46 percent during the same period.
UNICEF Chief of Health Stefan Peterson said though the lives of 50 million children under-five have been saved since 2000 through increased level of commitment by governments and development partners to tackle preventable child deaths, more still needs to be done to stop babies from dying the day they are born, or days after their birth.
“We have the knowledge and technologies that are required — we just need to take them where they are most needed.”
According to the report released by UNICEF, World Health Organization, World Bank and Population Division of UNDESA, which make up the Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (IGME), at current trends, 60 million children will die before their fifth birthday between 2017 and 2030, half of them new-borns.
Nigerian Minister of Health Isaac Adewole had earlier this year described the high mortality rate of under-five in the country as unacceptable.
He said the government has however made significant progress in reducing the rate of new-born deaths in the country as it has declined from 201/1,000 live births to 128/1,000 live births in 2013.
Every single day, Nigeria loses about 2,300 under-five year olds and 145 women of child bearing age, making the country the second largest contributor to under-five and maternal mortality rate in the world.
The latest report noted that many lives can be saved if global inequities are reduced.
If all countries achieved the average mortality of high-income countries, 87 percent of under-five deaths could have been averted and almost five million lives could have been saved in 2016.