4 research outputs found
Insurgency in Northern Nigeria: Implication for Polio Eradication in Nigeria
Northern Nigeria is currently threatened by two wars, the disease called polio and insurgency caused by the fierce group that rejects the influence of Western education. The increased insurgency experienced in the last decade in the form of violent conflicts and criminality has created a community of poor internally displaced people at risk of infectious diseases such as polio. Despite efforts by the government to eradicate polio in Nigeria insurgency remain a major obstacle. There is a need to urgently tackle insurgency to achieve polio eradication
COVID-19 outbreak: a potential threat to routine vaccination programme activities in Nigeria
COVID-19 is an infectious disease caused by the most recently discovered coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). The virus and disease were unknown before the outbreak began in the city of Wuhan, China, in December 2019. Nigeria and other sub-Sahara Africa countries like the rest of the world introduced several lockdown measures as part of their public health response to mitigate the spread of the virus. This, however, was not without the likelihood of consequences considering the weak health systems. The access and supply side of vaccination was more likely to have been affected by the lockdown measures. When vaccination services are disrupted even for brief periods during emergencies, the risk of outbreak-prone vaccine-preventable diseases increases, leading to excess morbidity and mortality. This highlights the importance of maintaining essential services such as vaccination in times of emergency. There is therefore an urgent need to ensure that children are protected against those diseases for which vaccines already exist. The COVID-19 outbreak has posed a new hindrance to vaccination activities in Nigeria and across Sub-Saharan Africa with associated threat to surveillance of vaccine-preventable diseases. Achieving and sustaining high levels of vaccination coverage during this period must, therefore, be a priority for all health systems
The Unspotted Impact of Global Inflation and Economic Crisis on The Nigerian Healthcare System
Inflation, the rise in prices of goods and services, has been on an exponential rise over the past few years globally. The excess inflation and the devaluation of the Nigerian currency has aggravated the problem of poor healthcare funding in the country. The overlooked influences that global inflation has had on the Nigerian healthcare system were highlighted in this work. Some of the influences included increased healthcare costs leading to demand-related problems, increased morbidity, reduced quality of healthcare delivery despite the increased cost, understaffing, the inefficiency of healthcare workers, medical brain drain as well as dwindling of research activities. In line with these consequences, it has become imperative for the government to take action to curb the growing menace of inflation and its impacts, through policy development and implementation as well as increasing resource allocation to the health sector
Attitude and predictors of exclusive breastfeeding practice among mothers attending under-five welfare clinics in a rural community in Southwestern Nigeria.
BackgroundMuch previous research on exclusive breastfeeding has focused on urban and semi-urban communities, while there is still a paucity of data from rural areas. We assessed the attitude and practice of exclusive breastfeeding and its predictors among mothers attending the under-five welfare clinics in a rural community.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted among consecutively recruited 217 mothers attending the three health facilities under-five welfare clinics in Ido-Ekiti, Southwest, Nigeria. Information was collected with a semi-structured interviewer-administered questionnaire adapted from previously published research works. Descriptive and inferential statistics were carried out using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 26.0.ResultsMore than half of the mothers, 117(53.9%) were ≥30 years old, and 191(88.0%) were married. Almost all, 216 (99.5%) attended an ante-natal clinic; however, 174(80.2%) delivered in the health facility. The respondent's mean ± SD exclusive breastfeeding attitudinal score was 29.94 ± 2.14 (maximum obtainable score was 36), and the proportion of mothers that practiced exclusive breastfeeding was 40.6%. Married mothers were more likely to practice exclusive breastfeeding than their unmarried counterparts (AOR:6.324, 95%CI:1.809-22.114). The common reasons for not practicing exclusive breastfeeding were work schedule 57(26.3%), cultural beliefs and the need to introduce herbal medicine 32(14.7%), and insufficient breast milk 30(13.8%).ConclusionThis study revealed a good disposition with a suboptimal practice towards exclusive breastfeeding. Also, being married was a positive predictor of exclusive breastfeeding. Therefore, we recommend policies that will improve exclusive breastfeeding among mothers in rural areas, especially those targeting the unmarried, to achieve the World Health Organization's target