Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) contributes to the global high infant mortality rate. Nigeria is a major contributor (200-300 per 1000 live births), and to the estimated stillbirths of 32.2 per 1000 deliveries in SSA. The stillbirths for a period (2005) in Nigeria translated to a crude rate of 158.6 per 1000 deliveries, compare to 5.3 stillbirth rate per 1000 deliveries for developed countries. I want to bring this issue to bare and seek solutions in a public-private partnership model.
Nno, Welcome, Ola,
I visited Nigeria in 2006 and was bitten by a bug called High Infant Mortality Rate. I read about the issue in a local news paper in Abuja. This information was buttressed while on holidays in my father's village (Nnewi); an elderly woman informed my cousin and I of 2 infant deaths that Christmas week from childhood preventable illnesses. I was aghast. I sat down, dumfounded, then a flashback of I (as a child), at the end of civil war, women carrying their dying babies of kwashiorkor to my father's compound seeking relief; food, water, medicine anything to help their infants. In 2007 I returned to finish my graduate school in Public Health and my community health class provided a platform to research infant mortality rate. Hence, I wrote a paper on it, and proposed a three year strategic pyramid solution.
This blog is about being part of the solution:
(a) bringing the issue to bear
(b) envisioning seamless integrated strategies
(c) visualizing adapting innovative, sustainable solutions to mitigate variables that give rise to high infant deaths.
At issue is the continent of Africa. Some may say I gave money to Africa, yes you did but in reality you gave money for a project in Mali, or Sierra Leone or Liberia. That is 3 countries out of 50. From my research, high infant morality rate in SSA is attracting international, national and individual researchers seeking effective methods in implementing sustainable measures or solutions towards reversing the numbers. I am suggesting that more man power is needed to combat the problem at least in Nigeria.
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/MDG_FS_4_EN.pdf
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