Alex Otti lied on infant and maternal mortality in Abia State- Dr Okechukwu Ogah

      
Abia State Ministry of Health says its attention has been drawn to a statement credited to the governorship candidate of a faction of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) in the state in the Sun Newspaper of Saturday 10th January 2015 to the effect that Abia has the highest infant and maternal mortality rate in Nigeria.
In a statement yesterday, the Abia State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Okechukwu Ogah challenged the APGA governorship candidate to publish his data as well as the source and the method used in conducting his research.


He directed all those interested in knowing about the current health profile and statistics of the state to consult such documents as the SMART SURVEY of 2013; the multiple indicator cluster survey of 2011 and data from the National Primary Health Care Development Agency of 2014.
Dr. Ogah said the documents supported and endorsed by credible agencies/ bodies such as WHO,World Bank,UNFPA and USAID and shows that the health profile of Abia State is better than the national profile.
According to him, in one of such reports, the infant mortality rate for Abia is 74/1000 live births compared to a zonal value of 83/1000 and national value of 97/1000 live births.
He further said that the under-5 mortality rate of Abia State was put at 116 compared to 132 and 153 for the zone and nation respectively.

With respect to childhood immunization coverage, the commissioner said the coverage for any immunization in 2014 is 95.5% compared 89.7% for national (as against the national target of 90% ).
DPT3/PENTA 3 performance in Abia for year 2014, the Health Commissioner maintained was 78.8 as against a national value of 52.2.