Health system in Nigeria, unresponsive - Yar’Adua

Muda Oyeniran, Lagos - 24.01.2008

President Umar Yar'Adua has admitted that the health system in the country is weak, unresponsive, inequitable and sometimes, unsafe.

According to him, recent outbreaks of vaccine preventable diseases like Yellow Fever, Measles and Cholera in different parts of the country, leading to the deaths of many Nigerians attested to the fact.

The President, whose address was delivered by the Minister of Health, Professor Adenike Grange, at the opening ceremony of the 39th Annual Scientific Conference of the Paediatric Association of Nigeria, in Lagos on Wednesday, also also said an outbreak of meningitis had been forecasted to occur in the country.

While giving statistics to buttress his arguments, President Yar Adua said 30 per cent of childhood deaths and 11 per ecnt of maternal deaths were still caused by malaria, adding that 2.9million Nigerians still lived with the HIV.

“Together this has contributed to overall low life expectancy of 45 years for men and 46years for women,” he said.

He, however, said his administrattion appreciated the gap between where the country was and where it ought to be.

“It is in response to this gap that the Federal Ministry of Health in collaboration with partners developed the Integrated Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (IMNCH) strategy within the context of the health sector reform that draws from National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy. This IMNCH strategy will be implemented within the Ward Minimum Health Care Package, as the entry point to revitalize primary health care,” he said.