NAN-HG-15
Nutrition
Bauchi, Nov. 30, 2016 (NAN) Bauchi State government says it has released its share of N270 million counterpart fund to enable the establishment of six additional Community-Based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) centres across the state.
The state’s Commissioner of Health, Dr Halima Muqadass, stated this in Bauchi on Wednesday during an advocacy meeting with Civil Society Organisations (CSO) and stakeholders on nutrition, organised by Civil Society Scaling up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS_SUNN.
Represented by the Chief Nutrition Officer in the state,Mr Dogara Mamman, the commissioner also said that N283 million had been proposed in the 2017 budget to ensure continuity in 2018.
Mugadas said that the state government had already domesticated the National Strategic Plan of Action on Nutrition to address the problem of malnutrition
Earlier in his remark, a Director in the state’s Primary Health Care Development Agency, Mr Mustapha Bello, said that in the past six years, the state was able to enroll and cure 59,000
malnourished children in its three centers.
He said the malnourished children were enrolled in the centres and treatment commenced
immediately, spanning a period of eight weeks.
“Out of the targeted 100,000 malnourished children, the state was able to cure 59,000 of them through the use of ‘Ready to Use Therapeutic Food’ for eight weeks for each child,’’ he said.
The Project Director, CS SUNN, Mrs Beatrice Eluaka, said that CSOs should create demand for information on nutrition at all levels.
She said that the citizenry needed information to help in addressing the challenges posed by malnutrition.
NAN reports that presently,the state has three malnutrition treatment centres in Katagum, Gamawa and Kirfi Local Government Areas while the additional six will be established in Toro, Tafawa Balewa, Ningi, Misau, Itas and Gamawa Local Government Areas (NAN)
AE/ASH/ASH