June 02, (THEWILL) – The wife of the Cross River State governor, Dr Linda Ayade, has explained why cases of infant mortality is falling in the state.
Dr Ayade said the high impact interventions in the health sector is having a positive impact on the health indices of the state.
The governor’s wife disclosed this in Calabar during the Official Flag -Off Ceremony of Maternal Newborn and Child Health Week.
She was represented by Dr Janet Ekpenyong, the Director General of the Cross River State Primary Healthcare Development Agency.
In her words, “infant mortality rate is going down in Cross River State because of the proactive measures we have been putting in place to ensure children between ages 0 to 5 years are immunied against vaccine preventable diseases.
“All these high impact interventions are helping us achieve that and visits to health facilities have decreased, thereby, reducing patronage of health facilities.
“For so many years now, there has been no outbreak of diseases in the state and excercises like this has helped the state tremendously over the years”, she said.
She said the target is to ensure that no child in the state within 0 to 5 years is left out alongside pregnant women.
She added that the week will also award them the opportunity to deworm our children and give them Vitamin A supplementation.
The idea, she said is to build their immunity at that tender age and build them for the future.
The exercise, she added is taking place simultaneously in all the local government areas and communities in the state.
For hard to reach areas, she said they have a fixed post at the health centres, temporary sites have also been set up, as well as house to house immunisation by health workers.
About 900,000 women and infants are expected to benefit from the MNCHW, which is the first for this year.
THEWILL Correspondent, Aniekan Bassey has over six years experience that spans across several fields in print journalism including development communication, sexual reproductive and health rights issues, crime, climate change, social justice, business and human interest stories.
