750 babies die, pediatrician laments

No fewer than 750 babies died across Nigeria on Wednesday.

And in a most tragic repeat, the same number of babies will go same way today,

Last month,according to a professor of pediatrics, no fewer than 275 000 babies die, out of 7.6 million live births in a year

Professor Tinuade Adetutu Ogunlesi of the  Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), Ago-Iwoye, revealed this.

Condensed, the stats reveals no fewer than 31 newborns die per hour.

“ A baby dies every other minute in Nigeria. Gruesome as this picture appears, it is our sad reality,” he said.

Ogunlesi disclosed this while delivering the 97th OOU Inaugural Lecture at the Otunba Gbenga Daniel Lecture Theatre, Main Campus, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State.

The Lecture was entitled “Ikunle-Abiyamo (Childbirth) and the Twenty-Eight-Day Journey: The Chances and the Choices” .

The pediatrician explained that lack of adequate funding remains the bane of efficient perinatal and neonatal care service in Nigeria.

He called for increased funding of Nigeria’s health sector to make its primary health care system function optimally and curb the growing mortality rate of newborn babies and under-five children in the country.

Ogunlesi, who is also a neonatal medicine physician at the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital (OOUTH), Sagamu, asked state governments to judiciously invest in the establishment of neonatal intensive care units to improve access to advanced facilities.

The scholar recommended the expansion of the scope of the existing National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in the country to include newborn care.

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The lecture was presided over by the Vice-Chancellor of the University, Professor Ganiyu Olatunji Olatunde.