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Fred Eze, Abuja
A Consultant Pediatrician with the Federal Medical Centre, Makurdi, Benue State, Dr. Simon Peter Gom, has attributed the continuous rise in figure of child death in Nigeria to insufficient Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU) across strategic locations in Nigeria.
Dr. Gom, who is the Founder of First Fertility and Children Hospital, Makurdi, Benue state, lamented that Nigeria with an estimated population of over 200 million people and estimated seven million live birth annually has only 23 NICU centres both in public and private health care facilities in Nigeria to offer respiratory support for newborns.
He was also concerned that the available NICUs are not evenly distributed across states in Nigeria, as most of the available ventilators in Nigeria are sited in South-West and South-South states while the least of the available ventilators are found in the North-East states, thus exposing newborns in the region to premature death.
He explained that the available statistics indicate a gloomy picture and not a promised future for Nigerian babies especially, those who may be born prematurely or have suffered some intrapartum conditions like, meconium aspiration syndrome, perinatal asphyxia and other conditions which they may need help to survive.
He said that the high infant mortality rate in Nigeria is unacceptable and challenged the Federal Government, concerned Nigerians and non-governmental organizations that are willing or committed to help bring down the high infant mortality rate in the country to join forces and change the fortune of newborns.
He said: “In our own little way, we have started a neonatal intensive care services which is first of its kind within the Benue Valley, covering four states, Benue, Nasarawa, Kogi and Taraba states, to offer level three neonatal intensive care services to newborns.”
He strongly solicited the support of the Federal and State governments to provide enabling environment for interested individuals and organizations to provide such critical services that would save the lives of newly born babies that required incubation.
