United Nations Children Fund, UNICEF, has disclosed that
over 950 Nigerian children under the age of five could die every day from
preventable causes over the next six months.
UNICEF said this could be as a result of the COVID-19
pandemic that has disrupted routine services and threatened to weaken the
health system.
UNICEF, in a statement explained that globally, 6,000
additional children under five could die every day.
It said the estimate is based on an analysis by researchers
from the John’s Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, newly published in
the Lancet Global Health Journal.
Henrietta Fore, UNICEF Executive Director said under
worst-case scenarios, the global number of children dying before their fifth
birthdays could increase for the first time in decades.
He warned, “We must not let mothers and children become
collateral damage in the fight against the virus.”
He explained that UNICEF had made steady progress in
reducing preventable child maternal deaths in Nigeria, assuring that over the
last 20 years, it would be devastating if that progress was lost or reversed.
The Executive Director said the under-five mortality rate
had declined gradually over the last two decades in Nigeria from 213 deaths per
thousand in 1990 to 120 today.
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