Maternal mortality still high in North Central – WHO

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said addressing maternal mortality in most states in North Central, Nigeria, including Niger State, was still challenging to the organisation despite efforts being made due to insecurity.

The organisation said that many children in the region had not been routinely immunised due to persistent security challenges facing most of the states in the zone.

The North-Central zonal coordinator of the WHO, Dr Asma’i Zeenat Kabir, made this known at the commemoration of the 2023 World Health Day and 75th year anniversary of the organisation held in Minna, the Niger State capital.

She said issues of reproductive, maternal and child-related problems were still a serious challenge facing most states in the North Central zone of the country, saying there was a need for more commitment to improving on the existing healthcare opportunities.

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Zeenat said a lot of progress had been recorded in the seven decades in terms of protection of people from diseases and destruction, including the eradication of smallpox, while the lives of millions of children had been saved through childhood immunization, with a decline in maternal mortality, among others.

Earlier, the Niger State Commissioner for Health, Dr Mohammed Mohammed Makusidi, said Niger State Government had improved in the area of primary healthcare in the last eight years by building more and more conducive primary healthcare facilities to achieve service delivery to all.