‘Nigeria, others contribute 60% to global maternal deaths’

May 21, 2014

Nigeria and nine other countries contribute about 60 per cent of the global maternal mortality burden, the World Health Organisation has said.

Media Officer, Development Communications, Mr. Ayodele Adesanmi, in a statement obtained by our correspondent in Ilorin on Tuesday stated that according to the report, though there is an improvement in Nigeria’s record of maternal mortality ratio of 630 per 100,000 in 2010 to 560 per 100,000 live births, more improvement is still desirable.

The reported added that about 40,000 maternal deaths occurred in Nigeria in 2013, which was second only to India which recorded 50,000 deaths.

WHO stated that Sub-Saharan Africa was still the riskiest region in the world for dying of complications in pregnancy and childbirth.

It stated that 11 countries that had high levels of maternal mortality in 1990 have already reached the Millennium Development Goal target of a 75 per cent reduction in maternal mortality from the 1990.

The countries are Bhutan, Cambodia, Cape Verde, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Maldives, Nepal, Romania, Rwanda and Timor-Leste. But it is uncertain that Nigeria will meet the MDG 5.

In another report, The Lancet Global Health noted that most deaths in Nigeria were preventable.