By Adeleye Kunle
The Ogun State Government has noted the publication of a report as contained in the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS), rating the state as having the highest infant mortality rate in the southwest of Nigeria.
Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) is conducted every two years by the Bureau of Statistics with support from partners in order to fill the data gap for monitoring the situation of children and mothers’ health.
The survey had in recent statistics recorded Ogun State as having the highest record of deaths of children between the ages of 0 and five years as well as postnatal care for newborns, in the southwestern part of the country.
But the state government in a statement by the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Olutomi Coker, on Saturday, in Abeokuta, cleared the air on the recent result released in the last MICS in Ibadan, Oyo State.
Coker said that the state government was not unaware of the health position of women and children in the state, the situation is not as painted by the publication. She stated that the report also made it clear that the sample size was not adequate for majority of indicators in the state thereby making the report a poor representation of the true picture of infant health in the state.
