NAN-HG-16
Malnutrition
By Mustapha Sumaila
Dutse, Feb. 23, 2017 (NAN) Dr Shehu Sambo, Director of Jigawa Primary Health Care Development Agency, on Thursday said 3,260 children below the age of five in the state had died of malnutrition between 2010 and 2016.
Sambo disclosed this in a paper presentation on overview of Community-Based Management of Acute Malnutrition at the ongoing advocacy meeting on management of severe acute malnutrition by UNICEF, Bauchi field office.
He explained that 36,271 out of 280,980 children admitted within the period under review were defaulters who did not complete treatment, hence some of them might have died thereafter while 20,226 of them were cured.
The Director noted that it was worrisome that over 800 children died of malnutrition in the state in 2016 alone.
He said that based on SMART survey 2015, the case of Severe Acute Malnutrition had risen from 17 per cent in 2008 to 41 per cent in 2013, while stunting rate rose from 34 per cent in 2008 to 62 per cent in 2013.
Sambo explained that this had shown that about one million out of 1.8 million children under five in the state were stunted.
“This has shown us that more than half of our children population are stunted, this is a very disturbing situation that we must do everything possible to address,” he said.
The UNICEF Chief Field Officer, Dr Abdullahi Kaikai, appealed to chairmen of affected local governments to provide fund for drugs for the malnourished children in their respective areas.
Kaikai said that the chairmen must make the tackling of malnutrition a priority to save the lives of children in their areas. (NAN)
MS/AMY/AMY
Edited by Abdullahi Yusuf