Pattern of mortality among Childhood emergencies at the Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital, Bayelsa State, Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Regular and periodic assessment of pattern of childhood mortality in the Children emergency room (CHER) is important to define common childhood killer diseases, notify responsible authorities and outline measures to prevent and curb them.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to describe the pattern of childhood mortality seen in the CHER of a tertiary centre in the Niger Delta region- Bayelsa State of Nigeria over a 5 year period  (1^st January 2014 to 31^st December 2018).

Methods: The admission records of all the children admitted into the CHER of the Department of Paediatrics of the Niger Delta University T eaching Hospital (NDUTH), Bayelsa State were retrospectively reviewed and analysed.

Results: One hundred and thirty nine out of 1,949 children admitted over the study period died, giving a mortality rate of 7.1%. Out of 139 children who died, 88 (63.3%) of them died within 24 hours of arrival at the hospital. Majority of the deaths, 115 (82.7%) were children under the age of 5 years out of which 51.3% were infants. The common causes of death were septicaemia (34.8%) and severe malaria (34.8%) among the under-fives and meningitis (25.0%) and HIV/ TB (20.8%) among those above the age of 5 years. The highest number of mortalities were recorded in the months of February to April and there was a decline in annual mortality rates over the five year period however, this was not statistically significant.

Conclusions: Childhood mortality is high in Bayelsa State especially among the under-fives. Most of the deaths are preventable. Strengthening of the existing programmes such as malaria control practices, good antenatal care, training and retraining of health workers, extension of immunization services beyond infancy and good access to health care services is advocated to reduce Childhood mortality.