Nigeria’s Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Muhammad Ali Pate, has sounded the alarm over the country’s heavy child mortality burden, revealing that about 850,000 preventable newborn and under-five deaths occur every year.
Speaking in Abuja during the commemoration of World Pneumonia and Prematurity Days 2025, Pate described the figure as “a heavy national burden” that demands urgent, sustained interventions to save young lives. Represented by the Director of Health Promotion, John Urakpa, the minister acknowledged that while Nigeria has achieved a 45 percent reduction in under-five mortality over the last two decades, the rate remains far above global targets.
According to data from the Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS), under-five mortality dropped from 201 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2000 to 110 in 2023. However, the country remains off track to meet the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target of reducing under-five deaths to fewer than 25 per 1,000 live births by 2030.
Pate identified pneumonia as one of the deadliest yet neglected killers of children, responsible for 162,000 deaths annually in Nigeria. He lamented that despite global progress against diseases like malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV, childhood pneumonia has not received adequate attention.
He commended the partnership between the Ministry of Health, the Every Breath Counts Coalition, and the Paediatric Association of Nigeria, which led to the creation of the In-Patient Pneumonia Treatment Algorithm. The initiative, he said, has strengthened the capacity of health workers and helped reduce under-five mortality from 132 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2018 to 110 in 2024.
The minister also expressed deep concern over neonatal mortality, noting that 280,000 newborns die within their first 28 days each year due to prematurity. To address these challenges, Pate launched two major national documents — the Nigerian Child Survival Action Plan and the National Birth Defect Surveillance Guideline.
The Child Survival Action Plan, developed through multi-sector consultations, provides a roadmap for reducing under-five deaths by strengthening investments in health, nutrition, education, and child protection. The Birth Defect Surveillance Guideline, Nigeria’s first standardized framework for tracking birth defects, will establish hospital-based sentinel surveillance across 12 tertiary hospitals nationwide.
UNICEF Nigeria’s Health Manager for Maternal, Newborn, Child, and Adolescent Health, Martin Dohlsten, reaffirmed UNICEF’s support for Nigeria’s efforts to combat pneumonia and prematurity — two of the leading causes of child mortality.
Officials emphasized the need to expand access to oxygen therapy, promote exclusive breastfeeding, strengthen primary healthcare, and implement Kangaroo Mother Care as cost-effective solutions to improve newborn survival.
World Pneumonia Day is observed globally on November 12, while World Prematurity Day is marked on November 17 to raise awareness about premature births and accelerate global action to save young lives.
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