Under-5 Mortality Rate: Kano leads in Nigeria

No fewer than 101,000 Under-5 children die every year in Kano State out of the 575,000 live births recorded annually in the state, the highest under-5 mortality rate by any state in Nigeria.
According to the Programme Officer of Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria and Partnership for Advocacy in Child and Family Health (PSN-PACFAH), Mr. David Akpotor the state also has the highest rate of under-five childhood mortality from pneumonia and 15 per cent under-five diarrhoea mortality rate in the North West geo-political zone, which is far higher than the national average of nine per cent.
Citing statistics from the Nigerian Demographic Health Survey (NDHS 2013) Akpotor told the Kano state Commissioner of Health, Dr. Kabiru Ibrahim Getso during a courtesy visit by the coalition of Civil Society organisations against childhood killer diseases of Pneumonia and Diarrhoea that the state’s current under-5 mortality rate remains high at 185 per 1,000 live-birth.
The PSN-PACFAH Programme Officer urged the state to, as a matter of urgency, commence the implementation of the global and national guideline of the adoption of Amozicillin DT and Zn-LO-ORS as First Line Treatment for Childhood Pneumonia and Diarrhoea respectively.
He told the Commissioner that most of the under-5 deaths in the state are from preventable and treatable diseases, such as malaria, pneumonia and diarrhoea, adding that the NDHS survey also revealed that pneumonia accounts for 14 and 15 per cent respectively, of the under-5 mortality rate in Kano State.
In his response, Dr, Getso assured that the state government would take all necessary steps to decrease morbidity and mortality rates in the state. He told the coalition that the government was collaborating with the Gates and Melinda Foundation to address the twin problem of pneumonia and diarrhoea in the state.