The Enugu government has inaugurated a 30-member task force team to eliminate maternal and infant mortality in the state through the Maternal and Neonatal Mortality Innovation Initiative project.

The MAMII project workshop, which began on Monday, ended on Friday with the inauguration of the task force to implement the project.

The task force members were drawn from health professionals in hospitals and health agencies in the state, as well as health donor agencies and partners.

Inaugurating the team in Enugu on Friday, health commissioner George Ugwu described the moment as symbolic.

“This development did not happen by accident,” said Mr Ugwu.

Mr Ugwu said the inauguration followed several weeks of articulation and work, particularly the one week of co-creation of a document to be used to reduce maternal and neonatal deaths in Enugu. He added that under Governor Peter Mbah’s administration, the state adopted a holistic approach towards healthcare delivery.

According to him, healthcare is being revamped from primary to tertiary level, while stakeholders at the community level should assist pregnant women and babies to access these healthcare facilities to reduce maternal and newborn deaths to zero.

Abraham Ahmadu, the Sector-wide Approach national team lead to Enugu, explained that the MAMII project team for the state would help coordinate, monitor, and drive multi-sectoral actions to accelerate the reduction of maternal and neonatal mortality in the state.

Ifeyinwa Ani-Osheku, executive secretary of the Enugu State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, stressed that the initiative was geared at ensuring that “no woman in Enugu State dies from pregnancy-related causes”.

She noted that Nigeria had one of the highest burdens of maternal and neonatal deaths worldwide, pointing out that every 10 pregnant women who die, three die in Nigeria.

She, however, called for collaboration of all stakeholders to end the menace in the state, assuring the Federal Government that the state would “surely surpass the MAMII project target”.

(NAN)