FILE: Malnourished children
By Ibrahim HassanWuyo
In Kaduna state, acute malnutrition has allegedly killed 124 children between January and September 2020. 21,265 other children were now on admission, according to the Nutrition Officer, Kaduna State Primary Health Care Development Board (KADSPHCDB), Mrs. Ramatu Musa.
Mrs Musa said that the state however,cured 15,329 malnourished children, 2, 128 defaulted while 264 others remained unchanged after treatment (unrecovered) at Community Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) centres within the same period under review.
Jibril Isah ,Monitoring and Evaluation Officer,KADSPHCDB spoke on behalf of the Nutrition officer at a two-day meeting to strengthen Advocacy Skills and capacity of Health and Nutrition CSOs, Media and government officials organised by Civil Society-Scaling Up Nutrition (CS-SUNN).
He said in order to manage the situation , the CMAM centres were increased from 10 in two LGAs in 2017 to the current 77 in 15 LGAs while stabilisation centres were established in 17 General Hospitals for children suffering from Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM).
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“Government’s intervention had significantly increased access to quality treatment of malnutrition in the state through a lot still needs to be done,” she said.
“We equally have 796 trained Community Volunteers, 45 in each LGA except Igabi with 63 and Kajuru 238 mobilising community members for optimal IYCF practices,” she said.
“A total of 95,906 mothers, women, grandmothers, and men were reached with Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) messages by 904 support groups in the state.
“Out of the figure, 27,469 pregnant women were reached, 24,767 mothers of children less than six months of age, and 23,993 mothers of children six to 23 months.
“Others as 19,448 women of childbearing age, 12,762 grandmothers and 7,467 men, adding that 13,473 children under five years were referred to health facilities for treatment”, she said.
State Coordinator of Civil Society-Scaling up Nutrition (CS-SUNN) Silas Spencer Ideva, said that malnutrition among reproductive-age women and children continued to pose a big challenge to health and human development of the citizens in state.
“Two of the most critical factors mitigating the impact of this commitment is the inadequate funding and coordination of required intervention plans which was why we are bringing stakeholders together to see possible areas of engaging the state government to do more.”
“For example, each malnourished child required N24,000 to get IYCF and if you multiply that by the number of children currently on admission, you will see there is a need for serious budgetary provision for this course”, he said.
CS-SUNN is now working in Kano, Kaduna, Nasarawa, Niger and Lagos states,on Partnership improving Nigeria’s Nutrition Systems (PINNS) project.
The project was aimed at strengthening nutrition systems in Nigeria.
