How Effective is the 2012 Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Week (MNCHW) in Rivers State?

Authors

  • Best Ordinioha Department of Community Medicine, University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Port Harcourt

Keywords:

Cost-effective interventions, Rapid population coverage, MNCHW, MDGs, Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Nigeria is one of the countries noted to have made insufficient progress towards the attainment of the health-related MDGs. Experience has however shown that a few cost-effective interventions that can be delivered in resource poor settings, through family/community-level action and schedulable population-oriented services, are able to rapidly attain these goals. This was the basis of the Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Week (MNCHW) in Nigeria, designed to achieve rapid population coverage of chosen interventions, within the one week period of the programme. This study assessed the effectiveness of the week held in Rivers State, in June 2012.

Materials and Methods: The data for the assessment was collected through on-the- spot observations, three semi-structured questionnaires, and the final summaries of the week, provided by the State Ministry of Health. The questionnaires were administered in nine health centers, in three randomly selected LGAs. The first questionnaire was used to assess the extent of the social mobilization carried out for the week; the second was an exit interview of clients of the health facilities, and used to assess the success of the social mobilization campaign; while the third questionnaire was used to assess the availability of the intervention commodities, and the quality of care given to the clients.

Results: The social mobilization campaign for the week was poorly funded and did not have much effect, as only 28.57% of the clients of the health facilities were aware of the week. Most of the commodities for the week, except the NPI vaccines and vitamin A, were not available in the required quantities. Long Lasting Insecticide-treated Nets (LLINs) and Sulphadoxine-Pyrimethamine (SP) were not available in 65.22% of the LGAs, family planning commodities were not available in 30.43% of the LGAs, while iron and folate tablets were given to just 2.86% of the targeted total. The coverage rate of the vaccines ranged from 1.29% recorded with the measles vaccine, to the 14.85%, for the DPT vaccine. The coverage with vitamin A of 43.41% was the highest of all the interventions, while the 0.36% coverage for family planning commodities was the least.

Conclusions: The MNCHW in Rivers State did not meet the stated objectives. Efforts should be made to leverage on the political will of the current government of the State for health programmes.

References

UNMilleniumDevelopmentGoalsAvailableat:http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals.Accessed June 2007.

National Population Commission (NPC) [Nigeria]andORCMacro.NationalDemographic and Health Survey 2008. Calverton, Maryland: National Population Commission and ORC Macro. 2009.

Bhutta ZA, Ali S, Cousens S. et al. Interventionstoaddressmaternal,newborn,andchildsurvival:whatdifference can integrated primary health care strategies make? Lancet 2008; 372: 97289.

NationalPrimaryHealthCareDevelopmentAgency.GuidelinesforimplementingMaternal, Newborn and Child Health Week in Nigeria. Abuja. NPHCDA. 2011.

2012BudgetoftheRiversStategovernment.Accessed1/1/2013fromhttp://www.riversstate.gov.ng/open-data.html

Stenberg k, Johns B, Scherpbier RW, Edejer TT. A financial road map to scaling up essential child health interventions in 75 countries. Bulletin of the World Health Organization 2007; 85: 305 314.

AsuzuMC,OgundejiMO(2007).Minimum standards for primary health care services nationwide in Nigeria. Report of a consultancy assignment for NPHCDA.

Adelola A. Nigerian pioneers of modern medicine.Selectedwritings.Ibadan.Ibadan university press. 1977

TheNigerianAcademyofScience.Reducing Maternal and Infant Mortality in Nigeria (Workshop Summary). Nwosu J, Odubanjo MO, Osinusi BO, eds. West African Book Publishers, Lagos, Nigeria. 2009: 65 71.

Lengeler C. Insecticide treated bednet and curtains for preventing malaria. (Cochrane Review) Cochrane Database syst. rev. 2000; 2: Cd000363.

Goodman C, Coleman P, Mills A. Cost effectiveness of Malaria Control in sub Saharan Africa. Lancet 1999; 354: 378 385.

Mnzava AEP, Sharp BL, Mthembu DJ, Dlamini SS, Gumede JK , Goodman C. Comparisonofthecostandcost-effectiveness of insecticide treated bed nets and residual house spraying in Kwazulu Natal, South Africa. Trop Med Int Health. 2001; 6: 280 295.

Ordinioha B. The use and misuse of mass distributed free Insecticide-Treated bed Nets in a semi-urban community in Rivers State, Nigeria. Annals of African Medicine 2012; 11 (3): 170 175.

Newman R, Parise M, Slutsker L, Nahlen B, Steketee R. Safety, efficacy and determinants of effectiveness of antimalarial drugs during pregnancy: implications for prevention programmes in Plasmodium falciparum-endemicsub-Saharan Africa. Trop Med Int Health. 2003;8: 488506.

Downloads

Published

2015-12-22

How to Cite

Ordinioha, B. (2015). How Effective is the 2012 Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Week (MNCHW) in Rivers State?. The Nigerian Health Journal, 13(1), 33. Retrieved from https://tnhjph.com/index.php/tnhj/article/view/152

Most read articles by the same author(s)

1 2 > >> 

Similar Articles

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 > >> 

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.