Nigeria’s progress towards reducing under five? mortality is still slow, ranking 12th in the indicator with? the ratio 143 to 1,000 live births in 2010,? the? State of World Children report, has showed.
The report, a publication of the United Nations Children Education Fund (UNICEF), which will be launched tomorrow, however, revealed that appreciable progress has been made as compared to 1990 when under five mortality was 213 to 1,000.
The report also revealed that the life expectancy at birth of under five children in Nigeria stands at 51 as compared to Niger’s 54, Ghana 64 and South Africa 52.
?According to the statistics, the country shows a dismal outing compared to some other African countries like Togo and Ghana which ranked 24 and 43 respectively, with West and Central Africa retaining the highest maternal and under five mortality.
In the area of immnuisation of one year olds,? there was marked improvement in coverage of children immunized against some child- killer diseases like? TB, DPT1, DPT3, polio, measles, and HepB3 except in Hib3, scoring 76,77,69,79,71,66 and 69 per cent.
Despite the federal government’s free distribution of insecticide treated nets(ITN) embarked upon three years ago? of two? to every household, the percentage of households with at least one ITN is still poor with about 42 per cent while the percentage of under five sleeping under ITNs is 29 per cent.
In the area of HIV/AIDS, the report shows that a total number of under five orphans orphaned by the epidemic stood at 2,500 in 2009.