3,000 Health Workers Trained in Ondo

by: Adewale Giwa

Akure — About 3,000 health workers in Ondo State have been trained on ways of tackling maternal and child morbidity, State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Dayo Adeyanju, has said.

Adeyanju, who disclosed this in Akure at a news conference to mark this year's Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Week (MNCHW), said the gesture is aimed at eradicating child mortality through intensive service delivery.

He noted that the last demographic survey revealed that maternal mortality was still 545 per 100,000, which according to him implies that one in 18 women die at child birth. Adeyanju said this year's program would focus on children from 0- 59 months, stressing that routine immunization would be given to children between 0 to 11 months in accordance with the schedule while Vitamin A supplement would be given to children of 0 to 59 months.

"The aim of this program is therefore to reduce the high mortality rate in children through intensive service delivery.

The survey showed that neonatal and infant mortality rates are 48 and 100 per 1,000 respectively. This again implies that one in every five children will not reach the age of 5, which means that 1 million children die yearly," he said.

Adeyanju also commended the efforts of Ondo State Governor Olusegun Mimiko for launching the Abiye Safe Motherhood program in Ifedore area of the state to provide quality health care delivery for women.

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