Katsina: USAID, UNICEF, others tackle Severe Acute Malnutrition in children

Katsina: USAID, UNICEF, others tackle Severe Acute Malnutrition in children

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and other partners have deployed personnel and other resources to manage rising cases of Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) in children currently ravaging parts of Katsina State.

Reports indicate that the lingering state of insecurity in the area occasioned by activities of terrorist bandits has tended to worsen the SAM situation as a number of communities continuously flee their homes to seek refuge in makeshift camps.

Speaking at a training workshop for doctors, nutrition managers and other health workers in Katsina on Tuesday, the General Manager, Katsina State Hospital Management Board, Dr Abduljameel Umar Abdullahi, described the development as challenging noting that the refugee status of most families, “naturally increases the number of children with nutrition problems and that is why we see the rising number of such cases in the state.”

According to him, the “government is trying its best in providing facilities and personnel to cater for malnourished children in all nook and cranny of Katsina State.

“Government is also partnering with UNICEF in community management in Severe Acute Malnutrition which essentially is done in Primary Health Centres and there are more than 1000 of them across the state.

“The patients have access to these facilities and all that has been provided in the community management aspects.”

A UNICEF Nutrition Specialist, Oluniyi Oyedokun, who also spoke at the programme said that “we have serious problem in Katsina State in terms of children with Severe Acute Malnutrition and they are four times most likely to die than any other children.

“The treatment we give is the management of severe malnutrition through the community-based programme which is what we call community management of malnutrition.

“But among these children who are affected, studies have shown that about 10 per cent of them will have medical complications.

“The ones that are not likely to have medical complications are being managed at the community-based program in which we have a primary health care facility.

“The other group that cannot be managed at the community level, they need to be cared for at the higher facilities and that is where the general hospitals come in.”