Abstract:
Background: Approximately seventy-five percent of the deaths that occur in children excluding neonatal deaths in
sub-Sahara Africa result from preventable and curable diseases like pneumonia, diarrhea and malaria. A hospital-based
mortality and mortality pattern can be used to appraise the demographic profile and burden of disease in a community. AIM:
To determine the morbidity and mortality pattern of children admitted into the PMW of BHUTH, Jos. Methodology: This was
a retrospective study. Admissions into the paediatric medical ward of Bingham University Teaching hospital, Jos between
October 2017 to Octorber 2018 were reviewed, with data from the admission and discharge records of the ward. Data was
analyzed using SPSS version 20. A p value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Ethical clearance was gotten from
the ethical committee of the hospital. Results: A total of 357 children aged 1 month-15 years were admitted over the study
period, of these, 189 (52.9%) were males, and 168 (47.1%) were females with a male:female ratio of 1.1:1. The age range was
1-168 months. Two hundred and twenty-seven (63.6%) of the children were under 5 years old. The major cause of mortality in
children less than 5 years of age were BPN, Sepsis and malaria with 2 (18.2%) each respectively. The cause of morbidity was
majorly due to malaria 70 (20.2%), followed by various crisis of SCA 42 (12%). The highest case fatality rate was from viral
haemorrhagic fever (VHF) with 28%, followed by Acute bacterial meningitis (ABM) and Protein energy malnutrition (PEM)
with complications each having 15.4% respectively. The length of hospital stay was inversely proportional to mortality and the
difference was statistically significant (χ2 = 24.58, p < 0.00). The trend of sex distribution and morbidities showed that the
month with the highest morbidity was in October 2017 with 44 admissions, the highest number of male morbidities was in
January, 2018 with 26 males, while the month with the highest number of morbidities for females was in October 2017 with 21
patients. Out of all the 357 admissions, (92.7%) were discharged, (2.2%) left against medical advice, (0.6%) were referred,
while (4.5%) died. Conclusion: The burden of paediatric morbidity and mortality is on children under 5 years and the causes
are mainly preventable. An emphasis and focus on malaria eradication, vaccination and other child survival strategies will help
to reduce childhood morbidity and mortality.
