‘Diseases associated with poverty, poor environment leading causes of children’s deaths’

A university teacher, Professor Dominic Osaghae, has identified pre-term birth complications, Acute Respiratory Tract Infection (ARI), Intra-partum related complications, congenital Anomalies and Diarrhoea, as the leading causes of deaths among children.

He listed Malaria, VPD and Environmental Hazards, as well as Sickle Cell Disorder to be among the leading causes of death among children under the age of five in Sub-Sahara Africa.

Osaghae, who argued that neonatal deaths account for 41 per cent of under-five deaths, said there was an urgent need to intensify the quest to end preventable child deaths by implementing specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound measures.

He said the measures to end preventable child deaths include provision of immediate and exclusive breastfeeding, as well as improving access to skilled professionals for antenatal and postnatal cares.

Osaghae stated this when he delivered the 15^th inaugural lecture of the Igbinedion University, Okada on: The Roadblocks on the Highway to Survival of Children: The Interventions of a Pediatrician.

He added that other measures to end preventable child deaths are, improving access to nutrition and micronutrients, promotion of danger signs among family members in addition to improving access to immunisation, water, sanitation and hygiene.

He lamented that unfortunately, most of the life saving interventions are beyond the reach of the world’s poorest persons and communities.

“This in my 40 years of active medical practice, with particular focus on six years as a resident doctor, four years as Consultant pediatrician in the public service and 15 years as full time independent practice an d 10 years in the university system.

“Experience has revealed that Nigerian children like other children in the tropics are overwhelmingly challenged during the inevitable journey on the highway to survival by diseases associated with poverty, underdevelopment and poor environmental ills.

“The journey of childhood last 18 years, beginning from birth and terminating at adolescence and like a marathon race with participants commencing the competition together but some dropping off at variable points, others slowing down to rest and resume later, while others steadily continue till the end of the race,” he stated.