A nutritionist and health specialist with the United Nations Children’s Fund, Lagos Field Office, Dr Ijeoma Agwu, speaks withabout recent reports that showed that Ogun State and other South-West states were worst in infant mortalityraised concerns about the rise in infant mortality in Ogun and other South-West states. How did you arrive at that?
What do you think is responsible for the state’s poor performance in the health sector? Does it have anything to do with its geographical location? In terms of the documentation, we may not have an accurate population within that state. Some children may be vaccinated today and may move across the border, while others come in and this comes with a lot of issues. So, that is one thing we are committed to supporting – order immunisation – and looking at other interventions we can bring across borders.Another issue we see around human resources for health is dwindling capacity and distribution.