ABSTRACT
A significant proportion of pregnant adolescent girls do not seek appropriate care during pregnancy because antenatal care services are ill-adapted to their age-group. To bridge this gap, the Lagos State Government established a -Young Moms Clinicâ where antenatal care services uniquely tailored to the needs of pregnant adolescents was piloted for six months. During this period, 106 pregnant adolescent girls enrolled in the clinic and 98% of them completed the minimum four ANC visits required of them. In addition, they acquired knowledge on newborn care, sexual reproductive health and were either re-integrated back to school or empowered with income-generating skills following delivery. In this regard, the Young Mom's Clinic is a promising approach to meet the needs of pregnant adolescent girls as it expanded their access to the type of specialized care not readily accessible to them within public health facilities.
ABSTRACT
Contact tracing is the process of identifying, assessing, and managing people who have been exposed to a disease to prevent onward transmission. It is an essential public health tool and a crucial component to the on-going COVID-19 pandemic response in Lagos State, Nigeria. This contact tracing exercise is the largest one to be conducted in the megacity and is leveraging on the expertise of professionals across different strata of the health care system. Following the confirmation of a positive case of COVID-19; the State's contact tracing team commenced investigations by identifying contacts and following them up daily for 14 days from the last point of exposure. In the process of conducting this large-scale exercise, several lessons that can improve contact tracing outcomes such as the need for community mobilizers and decentralization, the importance of technology and communication campaigns were learnt and can serve as good practice for other implementers.
Subject(s)
COVID-19/epidemiology , Contact Tracing/methods , Cities/epidemiology , Humans , Nigeria/epidemiology , Pandemics , SARS-CoV-2ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Nigeria still ranks second globally in the number of maternal deaths. Most maternal death reviews in Nigeria are isolated research based reports from a single health facility. This study determined causes and contributory factors of maternal mortality in Ogun statefollowing a periodic State-widematernal and perinatal deaths surveillance and response (MPDSR) review. METHODS: We carried out a retrospective analysis of cases of maternal deaths notified (n = 77) and reviewed (n = 45) in health facilities in Ogun State from 2015 to 2016selected using total sampling method. Using the national MPDSR structured and validated data collection tools or questionnaire, collected data was extracted from existing MPDSR data base, andanalyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software 20.0. We obtained approval from the State Ministry of Health for this study. RESULTS: Average age at maternal death was 30.8 ± 5.7 years. Haemorrhageand pre-eclampsia or eclampsia account for 43.4 and 36.9% of causes respectively. Leading contributory factors ofmaternal deaths include inadequate human resource for health, delay in seeking care, inadequate equipment, lack of ambulance transportation, and delay in referrals services. 51.1%of the women had antenatal care while a significant proportion of the women were referred from Traditional Births Attendants (TBAs) and mission houses. CONCLUSION: We concluded that many of the contributory factors of maternal mortality could be avoided if preventive measures were taken and adequate care available. MPDSR provides a platform for critical evidence of where the main problems lie, and can provide valuable information on strategies which maternal mortality prevention programs should focus on. The implementation and institutionalization of MPDSR programme is on course in Ogun State. MPDSR is feasible and should be institutionalized in all states of Nigeria. A commitment to act upon the findings of MPDSR is a key prerequisite for success.