Children under five die of preventable illness

Accra, May 02, GNA - One out every nine Ghanaian children die before their fifth birthday as a result of preventable childhood illness, Dr Isabella Sagoe-Moses of the Child and Reproductive Health Unit of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) said on Tuesday. She said children died of preventable related environmental illness such as neonatal diarrhoea, pneumonia, malaria, measles and malnutrition.

She mentioned malaria, diarrhoea, malnutrition and Acute Respiratory Infections (ARI) as the top four illnesses and cause of death in under five years of age that had strong links to the unhealthy environment.

Dr Sagoe-Moses said this when her Unit took its turn at the GHS monthly health promotion talk in Accra under the theme: "Healthy Environment, Healthy Children". The theme is in commemoration of the Child Health Promotion Week, which falls between May 8 and May 12 with the aim to reduce under-five morbidity and mortality through awareness creation and increase in the uptake of services.

The week, initiated by GHS in 2004, would be supported by the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment, Births and Deaths Registry, Ministry of Education, Ghana National Commission on Children (GNCC) and Development Partners.

Activities for the week would include child health service delivery in all health facilities and outreach points, clean-up exercise and Information Education and Communication activities to the general public.

The week will also address Vitamin A supplementation, re-treatment and distribution of intermitted Treated Nets, immunisation, growth promotion, child health records distribution, birth registration and de-worming.

Dr Sagoe-Moses noted that Ghana's under-five mortality rate was 111 per 100,000 live births, infant mortality, 64 per 100,000 live births and neonatal mortality rate was also 43 per 100,000 live births. "Globally, over three million children under five die annually as a result of poor environmental conditions and there is the need to create awareness about the vulnerability of children to unhealthy environment".

She said despite the preventive interventions; children could still fall ill and die from diseases caused by the unhealthy environment.

Dr Sagoe-Moses called for the adoption of simple measures to improve environmental and personal hygiene, waste disposal, safe water, hand-washing and food hygiene.

Mrs Ruth Addison, Senior Programme Officer of GNCC, said statistics from World Health Organisation indicated that malnutrition accounted for 54 per cent of the 10.5 million annual deaths in children under-five years of age globally.

She called for the need for parents to invest in the health, nutrition and stimulation in the early life of their children and they would receive in return an increasing productivity in later years, adding; "moreover, preventive programmes produce enough savings". Mr Samuel Ankrah, Director of the Births and Deaths Registry, said the Department after mainstreaming birth registration activities into the immunisation and health services, a significant improvement of 67 per cent as at the end of 2005 from 17 per cent in 2002. He said a lot could be achieved for the common good of the children if all stakeholders exhibited the spirit of partnership. Professor Agyeman Badu-Akosa, Director-General of GHS, charged the Ministry of Local Government to ensure the proper registration of food handlers for the safety of the public that patronised wayside foods. 02 May 06