A Discussion Was Held With Media Professionals , Stakeholders on Main Causes of Children’s Illness And Death
The Ethiopian Public Health Institute’s National Data Management and Analytics Center for Health (NDMC) in collaboration with Haromaya University and Child Health and Mortality Prevention (CHAMPS Ethiopia) project organized a workshop to raise awareness among media professionals about the leading causes of illness and death for children under five years of age in Ethiopia on June 14, 2023 and the next day with international stakeholders at the Institute’s National Training Center’s hall.
To make the leading causes of illness and death of children under five years old and their solutions accessible to the public by raising awareness among various media professionals was the major aim of the discussion. A study conducted by Haromaya University and NDMC on the leading causes of illness and death for children under the age of five was presented on the forum and the participant experts were made aware of it.
This study findings confirmed that malnutrition during pregnancy, neural tube defect, birth asphyxia, low birth weight, and malnutrition among infants and children under five years old are the leading causes of child death.
Also in these studies, it was indicated that high blood pressure during pregnancy is the major risk factor of death of children while asphyxiated during childbirth leading to Sepsis and pneumonia is the cause of infants’ death.The study emphasized mothers should do pre-pregnancy checkup, antenatal follow-up and prenatal monitoring and also adjust their diet during pregnancy to be solutions of the problems indicated in the study.
Finally consensus has been reached that Ministry of Health, NDMC, Haromaya University, CHAMPS Ethiopia and the media should work in harmony and use all the available media outlets to create awareness among the society and avoid causes of children’s illness and death. And also agreement was reached with the international stakeholders to work together to reduce the problem.