Experts: Diahorrea causes 11 per cent of under-5 deaths

About 11 percent of children under-five years die of diahorrea related cases in Nigeria, which ranks second after India with the highest global incidence of such related deaths, health officials said yesterday.
The national coordinator, Association for Reproductive and Family Health, Aliyu Jibril Guraguri, disclosed this in Dutse during the training of over 300health workers on sensitise their communities on the need to reduce the spread of diahorrea, importance of ante-natal and post-natal care as well as on how to reduce the cases of malaria among other diseases. He said annually Nigeria recorded, 100,000 deaths, representing 11 percent ofthe cause of death among children less than five years old.
Guraguri, who is also the project manager, Expanding Supply Marketing Project in Nigeria, charged parents to embrace exclusive breast feeding at least for a period of six months.
The reproductive officer, Jigawa State Gunduma Health System, Saudatu Abdullahi, warned against self-medication and reiterated the importance of exclusive breastfeeding.