SOME specialists have described as “unrealistic” the country’s chances of attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015.
They, however, said with adequate training of doctors and health care workers, access to treatment and prevention of diseases could be increased.
The experts from the imperial college faculty, London, said the country started the MDGs campaign on a wrong note.
They spoke at a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) seminar organised by Sub-Saharan Health Solution Nigeria Limited, Lagos. It was tagged: Enhancing the quality of paediatric and child health care delivery in Nigeria in the 21st Century.
According to the facilitator, Dr Dayo Ajayi-Obe, Nigeria still has a high burden in maternal and child mortality because of lack of experts and trained health care workers, especially in emergency paediatrics.
The programme, she said, was organised to increase medical content of young doctors so that they could manage children better.
Mrs Ajayi-Obe said: “We are focusing on child health care because Nigeria, a country of about 170 million, only has 600 consultant paediatricians. This is inadequate to attend to 70 million children under 18 years, about 40 million of the figure are under five.
“The United Kingdom has 3,084 trained consultant paediatricians and 1,184 associate paediatric specialists for its 20 million children and it doesn’t include the 3,174 paediatricians in training.”
Dr Stephen Obaro of the Paediatrics Infectious Diseases, University of Nebraska, Omaha, United States, said Nigeria was unlikely to meet the MDGs target.
This, he said, was because of gaps, stemming from the country’s inability to prevent new infections with the use of appropriate vaccines. He called for the mobilisation of people in communities to scale up vaccination, adding that there should be awareness for the immunisation of children.
He identified infections as the leading cause of death in children, especially diarrhoea and pneumonia and attributed the resurgence of yellow fever to poor immunisation programme.
“Polio is a disease that can be prevented with vaccines but there is a problem with people accepting the value of its immunisation. The distribution of the vaccine is another problem that should be tackled immediately.”
The CPD, he said, was an opportunity for doctors in the country to increase the quality of training which will impact on the quality of care that they offer to patients. “This is the first time we have an international faculty coming to train doctors in Nigeria. We are looking at avenues in which we can repeat this,” he added.
He urged the Federal Government to structure the content of medical training, stressing that at the moment it is poorly structured. The kind of training medical students receive is not as formal as it is elsewhere.
“The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) has identified gaps that need to be filled and it is reaching out to experts within and outside the country for help.”
A specialist in Acute Respiratory Illnesses and Paediatric Emergency, Dr Michael Webb, said the prevention of infant deaths was key to achieving MDGs, especially 1,2,4, 5 and 7.
He said emergency care was important as a form of medical intervention which usually takes place within two minutes, to saving newborns that have birth asphyxia or children under the age of 10 with difficulty in breathing.
“If we do not do the right thing that child may die in the next five to 30 minutes,” he added.
A specialist in Severe Acute Malnutrition, Imperial College, London, Dr Kelsey Jones called for adequate manpower to care for the sick.
“It is absolutely clear that the society that eradicates acute malnutrition will end up with a work force that is stronger, happier and more economically productive. There are sound economic reasons for focusing on improving nutrition of the children,” he said.
A paediatrician, Prof John Warner, said the percentage of Nigerian children who have allergy was much lower than those in the developed countries.
He lamented that it was now increasing rapidly in Nigeria and Africa in general.
He blamed this on what he called the degree of affluence, adding that increasing inhalant factors such as abstract mites, which thrived in warm and humid condition are responsible. “It is very pollen from particularly grass and trees, and it is animals such as dogs, cats and a host of others. There are more food allergies such as milk, egg and wheat.”
