West African College of Physicians calls for improvement of Nigerian health indices

The West African College of Physicians has called on the Nigerian government to improve the health indices of Nigerians.

The National Chairman and Vice President of the association, Prof Aboi Jeremiah Madaki, made the call in a pressure briefing in Abuja.

“The health indices of Nigerians is really poor and needed urgent attention.

“The Nigeria health indices portray declining health status of Nigeria when viewed as a trend over the years and also when compared with regional and global standards.”

Crude Death Rate (CDR) gives the number of deaths occurring during a year per 1000 population and is a good indicator of the general health status of the specified population.

Nigeria CDR in 2019 was 12 (11.6)/1000 of the population. It was 15.1 in 2008, [UN World Population Prospect-2020] and has minimally improved over the years.

According to Prof. Madaki, Nigeria has life expectancy of 54 years (2017) but dropped to 52.2 years in 2019.

The auspices of the West-African College of Physicians Nigeria Chapter, shall examine the factors responsible for the poor Nigeria health indices and also proffer solutions on how to improve the health of Nigerians during their 44/45th Annual General and Scientific Conference holding to be held in Abuja from 12-16 July 2021.

The Nigerians infant Mortality Rate (IMR) , which is dying between birth and 1 year of age, stands at 74/1000 live births and 3rd worst in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Prof. Madaki also said that factors responsible for poor health indices include high prevalence of diseases, both communicable and non-communicable, deteriorating socio-economic infrastructure and poor access coupled with inefficient healthcare services.

There are also emerging and disturbing causes of deaths in Nigeria especially suicide and insecurity issues (banditry, kidnapping, murder, cultism) which have pervaded the Country’s landscape and constitute key contributory factors to death.

He stressed that the Country’s leadership needs to take urgent steps to reduce preventable deaths and improve the quality of life of the citizens.

“We equally call on health-related professional bodies, security agencies and the general public to support government efforts in reducing preventable deaths in the Country and making the Country better for all.”

Dr. Benjamin Uzochukwu, another member of the association called on Nigerians not to let down their guards on the issue of COVID-19 and the pandemic is still raging.

“The only way you stop the spread of COVID-19 is for us to achieve immunity of the population. Otherwise called health immunity.

“And the only way you can achieve that health immunity is to make sure that a good percentage of the population are immunize against COVID-19. We should vaccinate ourselves and encourage others to vaccinate themselves,” Dr Uzochukwu said.