The National Population Commission has Commence an extensive collection of data for the 2019 Verbal and Social Autopsy Survey. The research study is a follow up to last year’s demographic Health survey and seeks to determine the causes and contributory factors to the number of deaths in children under five.
Tijesu Adeoye reports that Nigeria has a high infant mortality rate with an average of 132 deaths to 1000 births.
According to the Nigerian Demographic Health survey conducted by the National population Commission in 2018, a total number of 3,215 under 5 mortality cases were recorded.
The northern region had the highest number of about 2,601 deaths which is equivalent to 80percent, while in the southern part of the country, the number of child mortality amounted to 614 deaths which is 20percent of the total number of deaths recorded in the 36 states of the Federation.
The commission finds this development very disturbing and is set to conduct yet another survey to determine the causes of deaths in children within this age range.
The commission calls for more support from all departments of government for the success of the exercise
The survey will last for about 3months and the commission seeks maximum cooperation from members of the public to generate accurate and credible data for effective planning and sustainable development in Nigeria.
