Neonatal Infection Prevention Practices among Primary Health Care Workers in a Semi Urban Town in Nigeria

Newborn are particularly susceptible to certain diseases, much more than older children and adults because their new immune system are not adequately developed to fight the bacteria, viruses and parasites that cause these infections. This study therefore examines the neonatal infection prevention practices among primary health care workers in a semi-urban town in Nigeria. This analytical cross-sectional study was conducted between April 22ndand 13th May, 2013. A total sampling of all the primary health care facilities [5 government owned PHC and 36 private PHC] was used to select the participants into the study. All health care workers involved in the care of the newborn and met at the time of the visit to the health facility were recruited into the study. A semi- structured questionnaire was used to collect relevant information and a total of 389 Health care workers were interviewed. The mean age of the respondents was 34.72± 6.45 years. Three quarters [75.6%] of the respondents work in Private PHC and 21.8% work in government owned Primary health centre. Only 69.7% of the respondents have correct knowledge of neonatal infection. About 14.4% of the respondents advocated that baby should not suck the colostrum. About 12.2% of the respondents encourage giving the newborn water instead of breast milk immediately after birth. Furthermore, 15.9% still practice the use of breast milk as eye drops for cure of eye infection in the newborn and 71.4% of respondents still clean baby's ear with cotton bud immediately after birth as infection prevention practices in the newborn. Majority of the respondents [91.3%] encourage exclusive breast feeding. The study shows that unhealthy newborn infection prevention practices is still being practiced at the primary health care centers in Nigeria. Therefore, adequate training on care of the newborn should be given to health care workers involved in the delivery and perinatal care of the newborn in order to reduce the adverse effect of these unhealthy birth practices. These in turn would reduce the high neonatal morbidity and mortality in developing countries