…Says defect occur in 70 out of 100,000 births
An NGO, Spinal Bifida and Hydrocephalus Care Foundation yesterday in Abuja kick started the surveillance and prevention of birth defects in Nigeria.
President of the organisation, Mrs. Olubunmi Lawal who spoke to Nigerian pilot at the National Hospital venue of the first National Experts Meeting on birth defects surveillance and prevention in the country said the meeting was a convergence of stakeholders from the six geo-political zones in the country to deliberate on issues that affect children with birth defects.
According to Lawal, tracking incidences across the country is an important element in trying to apply measures at addressing the problems, saying prevention is cheaper and better than cure.
“We should not only emphasise on polio eradication, we have done so much on it and artificial prematurity, yet nobody is saying anything on birth defects where studies shows that 70 out of 100,000 live births in Nigeria’s newborn has one form of congenital abnormally or the other, nobody takes care of these babies and over 60 per cent of these deliveries are done at home. Most of them are left at home to die without coming to the centre city.’’
She called on people to start treating children with birth defects as normal human beings and not to discriminate against them in schools and other public facilities.
The Special Adviser to the President on MGDs, Dr. Precious Gbeneol, in a message promised that her office will collaborate with organisations to assist in reducing under-five mortality rates by two-thirds.
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