The United Nations Children Education Funds (UNICEF); has said that 950 Nigerian children may die from preventable diseases in six months
with linger of coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
According to Children’s Fund, the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted
routine healthcare delivery services for about six months.
UNICEF’s Communication Officer, Samuel Kaalu in a statement Wednesday
in Maiduguri, disclosed: “In a summary notes of Children’s Funds
Research Findings; warned that healthcare delivery disruptions could
lead to increased maternal and child mortality.”
The increased estimate, according to UNICEF, is based on an analysis
by researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public
Health.
“The analysis offers three scenarios of the potential impact of
COVID-19 in 118 low- and middle-income countries, including Nigeria,”
warned Kaalu
According to the Report, in a worst-case scenario, the estimate is
that an additional nearly 173,000 under-five deaths could occur within
six months.
He attributes child mortality to reductions in routine health service
coverage levels, including routine vaccinations and increased child
wasting.
“These potential child deaths would be in addition to 475,200 children
in Nigeria; who already die before their fifth birthday every six
months,” said Kaalu.
He noted that the disruption in routine immunization in Nigeria
threatens to reverse a decade of progress in ending preventable
under-five child mortality.
The report also said that about 6,800 more Nigerian maternal deaths
could also occur within months.
“Under a worst-case scenario, the global number of children dying
before their fifth birthdays could increase for the first time in
decades,” said UNICEF’s Executive Director; Henrietta Fore.
“We must not let mothers and children become collateral damage in the
fight against the virus,” she warned.
Also lending his voice to the disturbing findings, Peter Hawkins,
UNICEF’s Country Representative, Peter Hawkins also said: “We have
made steady progress in reducing preventable child and maternal deaths
in Nigeria over the last 20 years.
“It would be devastating if that progress is lost or reversed –
devastating for Nigerian families, communities and for the country as
a whole,” noting that; “Under-five mortality rate has declined
gradually over the last two decades in Nigeria – from 213 deaths per
thousand in 1990 to 120 today.”
He attributed it to improved access and coverage of key lifesaving
interventions at primary health care and community levels with
improved immunization rates.
