The Ogun State Government in collaboration with a multi-national oil company, Shell Production Company of Nigeria is set to tackle childhood illness in the state. The commissioner for Health, Dr Olaokun Soyinka who stated this at a training programme organised by the Ministry in collaboration with Shell, held in Abeokuta for health workers pointed out that the training was put in place to educate health workers on the best ways to tackle common childhood illness.
The commissioner pointed out that government was committed to maternal and child health care with the aim of sustaining the health system through community involvement, adding that enough attention had not been paid to primary health care in the country. Dr. Soyinka pointed out that the aim of the project was to pilot the primary Health care system that would run with community ownership while government would assist in improving skills and technical practices.
In his remarks, the Course Director, Professor Adedeji Onayade of the Community Health Department, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, stated that the training was meant to reduce under five child mortality rate since research has shown that 75 per thousand children would die before they clock one.
He pointed out that under five mortality rate is 157 per 1000 live births which occur mostly among the poor and the less privileged. “The training Programme is meant to enhance skills to manage sick children since 75% of the deaths in children are as a result of the common serious diseases like Diarrhoea, ear diseases, fever, cough, HIV/AIDS, malnutrition and pneumonia, he stated.
Via: Ogun State Government - Official Press Release
Childhood illness is always not the best thing for kids in Nigeria and in the whole...It makes no sense for it to always happen