‘Nigeria has 2nd highest stillbirth rate in the world’

Nigeria ranks second among countries with high stillbirth rates in the world, experts from the Institute of Human Virology Nigeria (IHVN) have said.

 They disclosed this in Abuja during a stakeholders’ engagement meeting for Improving Nigeria’s Capacity to Use Data on Registered Stillbirths for Decision making & Planning (SPEED Project) being implemented by the International Research Centre of Excellence of the IHVN.

 They said the burden of still-births in Nigeria was over 46 percent per 1,000 births, citing underutilization of data on registered stillbirths for decision making as a root cause.

The principal investigator of  the SPEED project,  Oghome Emembo, said the  UNICEF January 2022 Data report revealed that Nigeria recorded a stillbirth rate of 42.9 percent as of 2021,  giving it the second place among countries with high stillbirths rates in the world.

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She said the SPEED project was  working to translate data on Nigerian’s still birth to policy.

“Part of the component of this project will build capacity of monitoring and evaluation officers of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) and the Ministry of Health, on data management for sustainability of the dashboard, and data quality assurance,” Emembo added.

 Dr Abdullahi  Jato, head of newborn branch of the child health division of the  Ministry of Health, said much attention had not been paid to stillbirth  and that the SPEED project  would make a significant impact by  bringing in policy makers and people in charge of civil registration such as  birth and death registrations.

 Manager, National Health Management Information System, Ministry of Health, John Bisong, said many strategies could be deployed to reduce stillbirth such as advocacy, awareness, mentorship, documenting  and collecting data.