The Lagos State Primary Health Care Board established a subcommittee tasked with gathering accurate data in communities as part of a calculated effort to address the high incidence of maternal, prenatal, and infant fatalities.
News About Nigeria gathered that the goal of this effort is to give the government the critical knowledge it needs to address the incidence of mother and child deaths by identifying modifiable (preventive) factors, potential medical and non-medical causes, and long-term solutions.
This development was made available by Ibrahim Mustafa, the Permanent Secretary of the Lagos State Primary Health Care Board, in a statement released on Saturday in Lagos by Adetayo Akitoye-Asagba, the Assistant Director of the board’s Public Affairs Department.
Mustafa said that the subcommittee will function within the Community-based Maternal Perinatal and Child Death Surveillance and Response (C-MPCDSR) programme approach.
The subcommittee was established in partnership with the United Nations Population Fund and Project Aisha.
Regardless of the location, this programme model guarantees the identification, documenting, and auditing of maternal, prenatal, and child deaths, including those that happen at home or while travelling to a medical facility.
Nigeria has the highest rate of maternal fatalities worldwide, thus Mustafa emphasised the need for regular fact-finding and monitoring efforts by all parties involved in order to give the government the information it needs to make well-informed decisions.
Special Advisor to the Governor on Health, Olukemi Ogunyemi, emphasised the vital role that community members, especially at the grassroots level, play in decreasing maternal and child death rates. The program’s initial phase will be piloted in Ifako Ijaiye Local Government Area.
Ogunyemi tasked the subcommittee’s members—who included development partners, healthcare associations, market women, religious and youth leaders, senior government officials, and others—with carrying out their important assignment with diligence and proving that the state had put its trust in them.
