Under-Five Mortality and Causes of Death in Borno State, Nigeria

Abstract

There is much reduction in under-five mortality since the world focused its attention on it with the adoption of the Millennium Development Goals in 1990. However disparities persist with sub-Saharan Africa in the lead. Nigeria has the unenviable position of being the under-five mortality capital of the world. Borno State ranks 23rd in Nigeria with U5MR of 86/1000 live births. In addition to the vagaries of climate and socioeconomic underdevelopment, Borno State is also the centre of the Boko Haram insurgency since 2009. This study set out to determine the major diseases that caused deaths among the under-five children in the state between 2009 and 2013 using secondary data from the Epidemiological Unit of the Borno State Ministry of Health. Six Local Government Areas (two from each of the three Senatorial Districts in the state) were purposively selected. The major causes of under-five deaths found were malaria, diarrhoea/vomiting, measles, pneumonia and neonatal tetanus. The highest cause of under-five mortality was malaria in both Borno North and Borno South but malaria was second after diarrhoea/vomiting for Borno Central. The number of under-five deaths for the three senatorial districts have indicated fluctuating and general decline toward 2013 from 2009. It also shows that diarrhoea/vomiting was the highest killer of under-five children constituting 32 per cent of all deaths in this study, followed by malaria (30.3%) and measles (16.5%). Based on the findings, the study recommends the need for Nigeria to be more committed to health interventions and improve funding because all the major killers are preventable and are easily treatable.