Kperisi (UW/R), May 19, GNA - The Wa Municipal Directorate of Health Services on Thursday organized a quiz competition at Kperisi for 25 nursing mothers from communities within the municipality, as a climax to this year's Child Health Promotion Week.

They answered questions on anti-natal and post-natal care, nutrition and monitoring of child health, common childhood diseases and management of pregnancy, after which prizes were awarded to deserving winners.

The Week offered both caregivers and service providers the opportunity to interact, share knowledge and experiences and increased coverage of child care services.

Miss Basilia Salia, the Municipal Director of Health Services, said her outfit had began a programme designed to identify and promote core social practices that were contributors to child survival, growth and development at the household and community levels. This initiative, she said was under the Community-Integrated Management of Childhood illness for which community agents had already been trained to educate and support caregivers in the management of childhood illness.

She explained that the activities were extended for two weeks, this year, because children under five years mortality rate of 208 per 1,000 live births was too high in the municipality, as compared to the national average of 111 per 1,000 live births. Miss Salia noted that more than half of the total deaths in health facilities in the area were children under the age of five year and more than 70 per cent of them die through pneumonia, diarrhoea, measles, malaria and malnutrition.

Mr Mac Adams Banda, the Municipal Chief Executive appealed to the Ghana Health Service and its collaborators such as Plan Ghana, Catholic Relief Services and World Food Programme to team up to reverse the alarming rate of child mortality in the area. He noted that most of the health problems in the country were environmentally related and they could be prevented and therefore, urged the people to keep their environments clean and practise acceptable hygiene.

Mr Banda advised the people to register with the Mutual Health Insurance Scheme, because that was the surest and most effective way of making quality health care services accessible to them.