Red alert: Nigeria has 10% of world’s malnourished kids

One of every 10 kids in the world suffering from or dying of malnutrition is Nigerian, a reliable world health data has confirmed.
To tackle this scourge, on Monday August 17 in Abuja, the Federal Government with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)  made public data on malnutrition in Nigeria and it was clear that though progress has been made, acute malnutrition still remains major contributor  to the country’s high infant mortality rate.

Many might wonder how government and its partners arrived at the statistics shared to media but they might not have to go far if  they searched for real evidence. Right in the heart of the bustling city of Kano is the Dandawaki Primary Healthcare Centre (PHC). What makes this health centre special is that it hosts the Community-based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) centre. CMAM treats acutely malnourished children from six months to five years old on out-patient basis. More than 830,000 acutely malnourished  children have been treated in the programme with the cure rate rising steadily – currently standing at 85 per cent. Of the remaining children, about two per cent do not respond to treatment and are referred to hospitals; the current mortality rate is just one per cent.
On Friday August 7, the day Abuja Metro visited Dandawaki PHC, children suffering from acute malnutrition had just been enrolled to commence treatment.  Looking around, there was no need for argument that the children’s bodies lacked the nutrient and vitamins essential for physical and mental growth. Many of them not only looked emaciated, though some of them were old enough to walk, their worried mothers preferred to carry them in their arms. Some of the children who had been put through all the necessary tests by the staff of the PHC were already being fed with the life saving peanut based Ready to Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF). One of such mothers who came to Dandawaki with great hope of saving their children’s lives is Maryam Suleiman. The 31 years old mother of four brought her daughter Bilikis to the CMAM.  “She started having fever, diarrhea, vomiting and the rest, that is why I brought her to the hospital,” she said.
“Her symptoms started during the fasting period. I heard people talking about this place. But before now I had taken my daughter to several hospitals and have not seen any improvement, until I brought her to this place and since then I have noticed some level of improvements. It was the last hospital I took her that advised me to bring her to this clinic.  They told me that their medicines are quite good, and they give groundnut that would nourish the child. I gave birth to my child at Waziri Gidado hospital,”  she further said.
The story was the same for Husseina Abdullahi. “I also have four children, but it’s the fourth that brought me to the hospital. Her name is Maryam and she is eight months,” she explained.
Experts describe acute malnutrition which can be prevented by simple actions like breastfeeding and feeding children with readily available and affordable nutritious food such as fruits, as silent crisis in the country.
It is easy to understand because according to the 2013 National Demographic and Health Survey and smaller nutrition studies, about one million children die before their fifth birthday with malnutrition contributing half of these deaths. Also about 30% of Nigerian children are underweight, while the rate of children too thin for their height has steadily increased from eleven percent in 2003 to 18% in 2013. Worst still, malnutrition in childhood could lead to an adulthood of persons suffering from non-communicable diseases such as diabetes. There are cases of children with acute malnutrition in the southern part of the country. Ironically, the northern states largely known as the country’s producer of food crops and livestock is where the highest number of acutely malnourished are found.  According to the nutrition expert at the Federal Ministry of Health, Dr. Chris Isokponmwun, things are looking up as policy makers in the most affected states have gone beyond the denial stage. He said: “About a million of such children have been treated in the past four years and we are looking at scaling that up, because the number of children at that level is high. We are looking at 10 percent of 32m, that’s 3.2 million children in that situation. All the CMAM centers  are in 11 northern states. We do have a lot of such cases in southern Nigeria and we need to scale up to cover these regions too.”
As hinted earlier, the federal government and its partners at the media briefing held in Abuja announced that an estimated 200,000 Nigerian children were saved from malnutrition induced deaths as over a million children were treated with the highly successful and cost-effective treatment for acutely malnourished children. The federal ministry of Health in collaboration with UNICEF launched the Community-based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) in Gombe and Kebbi states in 2009. The program has now been introduced in 11 northern Nigerian states where malnutrition poses the greatest threat.
Speaking on this latest achievement in the move to reduce infant mortality in the country, UNICEF Nigeria Representative, Jean Gough said: “We must scale-up CMAM in Nigeria. It is a proven high-impact intervention that is saving lives and helping Nigerian children reach their full potential through a good start in life. We need greater investment in Nigeria’s future by investment in good nutrition,” she added.
Nigeria worst hit
There are approximately 1.7 million severely acutely malnourished children under five in Nigeria – accounting for a tenth of the global total. Nearly a thousand Nigerian children die of malnutrition-related causes every day – a total of 361,000 each year. Acute malnutrition also leads to stunting of children causing life-long physical limitations and can reduce intellectual capacity.
“The government of Nigeria is committed to reaching more children with CMAM,” said Linus Awute, Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Health, “We cannot accept that Nigerian children continue to die of malnutrition and that our potential future leaders should be diminished by its effects.”