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* Cross section of Oyo women attending antenatal at the Iwo Raod,Primary Healthcare Centre, PHC, Ibadan North-East during a field trip organised by UNICEF recently.
In Oyo, newborn deaths drop as immunisation increases
By Chioma Obinna
THE birth of a live baby
brings joy in the
community and ultimately
compensates the mother
for her endurance all
through the nine months
of pregnancy. But when it
becomes the opposite, it
throws the community and
the family into perpetual
sadness.
This was the situation
some communities in Oyo
found themselves a year
ago until the State
government, community
leaders, UNICEF and
other partners through the
Accelerated Action for
Impact, AAI, Initiative
moved in to ensure that no
child dies from preventable
causes as well as put in
measures that guarantee
that the estimated 334.073
newborns and 1,670,366
under 5 children in the
state reach their full
potential in health and
well-being.
In just six months, Oyo
has reduced the number of
unimmunised children in
three Local Government
Areas from over 2000 to
510, all thanks to AAI.
Previously, statistics have
shown that in Nigeria, Oyo
State is among the 15 States
contributing to nearly 50
percent newborn deaths in
Nigeria and the sadly, the
3rd highest contributor to
newborn mortality rate in
absolute numbers in the
South West.
According to the
Multiple Indicator Cluster
Survey, MICS, 2016/2017,
Oyo parades unenviable
42 percent of newborn
mortality rate.
However, as Nigeria
strives towards ensuring
100 percent child survival
through different
initiatives. In line with
these efforts, Oyo State
government with support
from UNICEF introduced
evidenced based
intervention for women,
children which has
metamorphosed
immunisation coverage in
Ibadan North-East,
Ibarapa North and Saki
West Local Government
Areas out of the six
identified Local
Government Areas with
high burden of newborn
deaths.
One unique thing about
the interventions is the
involvement of community,
religious and traditional
leaders and health workers
among others. These
leaders have introduced
house-to-house
mobilisation and
sensitisation in the
communities while the
health workers embarked
on constant outreach
programmes even in the
hard- to- reach areas in the
state.
Today, in Oyo, it is taboo
for a pregnant woman not
to visit the hospital for
antenatal or fail to
immunise her children.
Even Landlords quit their
tenants who fail to access
healthcare or immunise
their children. Community
members now come
together to mobilise
women to use health
facilities at no cost.
A field visit to Ibadan
North-East Primary
Healthcare Centre, PHC,
confirmed ws a revelation.
Community members
were all full of praises for
government, UNICEF and
other partners for saving
their newborns.
In some communities
like Oke-Adu,
immediately, the National
Orientation Agency alerted
them on the death of
children in the community
and what needed to be
done, the community
leaders began house-tohouse
mobilisation of
mothers and children to
health facilities. “We
banned Traditional Birth
Attendants in the villages.
We resumed house- to -
house immunisation. We
took it upon ourselves to
ensure we monitor
pregnant women and their
children. Today, it is
paying off. Our children
are no longer dying,”
Sulaimon Saudah, a
community birth attendant
narrated.
In the words of Chief
Community Health
Extension Worker, Mrs,
JolasinmiAdebola,
“Through the various
interventions such as
counseling and
awareness, the number of
women who usually brings
their children for
immunisation had
increased.
“Usually, we used to
have 56 women every
month but today, we have
over 78 coming to this
Today, in
Oyo, it is
taboo for a
pregnant
woman not to
visit the
hospital for
antenatal or
fail to
immunize
her children
centre alone. For exclusive
breastfeeding, it has
increased from 103 to 189.
The only challenge we
have is the fact that most
women no longer deliver
here since we stopped
running night services and
most deliveries happen at
night.”
A report made available
to Good Health Weekly on
Ibadan North East
showed 100 percent
immunisation coverage in
February, 2019. The
report also showed that
there was a decrease in
neonatal deaths. By
January, 2018 there were
four cases of neonatal
death between 0-28 days
of birth and cause of death
was Asphyxia. Today,
the LGA has also achieved
100 percent reduction in
neonatal death.
The State Immunisation
officer, Primary
HealthCare Board, Oyo
State, Mrs. Eunice
Nihinlola told Good Health
Weekly that newborn death
was commomplace due to
low immunisation
coverage, however,
UNICEF introduced
different intervention
designed to save newborns
and increase
immunisation.
“We started with training
of health workers because
we had problems with their
data documentation and
data analysis, we also have
issues of how they were
addressing mothers, and
the kind of attention they
were given them then
which made many of them
stayed away from the
facilities.
“The outcome of the
training has helped in
having more mothers
coming to the facilities to
have their children
immunised properly
against killer diseases and
it has reduced the number
of unimmunised children
from over 2,000 in the three
LGAs to 510.
“To address the issue of
handling of vaccines to the
hard –to- reach areas, the
Chairman, Saki West
provided us with
Motorcycles to move down
to hard- to- reach areas.
From the Local
government to get to
Korete, we 10 hours going
there and back.
Recalling that religious
beliefs and ignorance were
major factors affecting
immunisation coverage,
she affirmed that meetings
with religious and
traditional leaders have
paved a way for smooth
immunisation processes in
the state.
“During these meetings,
we address them on the
importance of vaccination
and the need for children
to get all the
immunisations including
BCG to prevent
tuberculosis, oral polio,
Hepatitis vaccines,
pentavelant vaccines,
pneumococcal vaccines
and measles vaccination.
Today cultural and
religious barriers are
history. The Imams help us
when we have issues.
Corroborating these
views, the Assistant
Immunisation Coaching
Officer for the LGA, Mr
Ayobami Akinola,
explained that the number
of newborns immunised on
a monthly basis had
increased from 1,701 to
1,926 due the health
interventions.
Ayobami said under the
intervention, women are
being taught proper
immunisation, exclusive
breastfeeding and postnatal
services, among
others.
He said to achieve this
feat, Community Ward
Development CBAs, were
also established to address
the negative belief on
immunisation and
encourage the people to
accept it.
He said now, they have
solar refrigerators and cold
boxes to preserve the
vaccines before distribution
to other PHCs in the area.
Giving insight into the
various interventions
during a two-day, media
dialogue with the theme:
“Improving Health
Outcomes for Children in
Oyo State through
Accelerated Action for
Impact.”, the UNICEF
Health Specialist, Akure
Field Office, Dr Adebola
Hassan, said the
interventions became
necessary after it was
identified that Oyo was
performing poorly in
newborn health in
absolute numbers.
According to her, some
of the babies die as result
of ill health after birth and
so many things can kill
new born within the 28
days. She said the
intervention programmes
had been having positive
effects in reducing the
number of newborn deaths
in the council area.
Hassan who noted that
there are six local
governments in the state
with highest infant
mortality and neonatal
death in the state was
optimistic that with various
interventions by UNICEF
and the state government,
the trend was changing.