The collaboration between the Federal Government and the United Nations Children’s Education Fund in setting up a hospital and community based has made more mothers to be conscious of their health status
According to the 2012 Nigeria Standardized Monitoring and Assessment of Relief and Transitions (SMART) survey, global acute malnutrition has a prevalence of between 6.4 and 13.1 per cent, and severe acute malnutrition between 0.7 and 2.2 per cent.
At Katsina General Hospital, half a dozen infants are being treated for severe malnutrition problems. That number is likely to swell with the onset of rains, because severely malnourished children are more prone to such diseases as cholera and malaria. “These infections can affect the brain, affect the health and can affect the respiratory system, but the most common are gastrointestinal diseases,”
Nigeria has one of the highest rates of infant mortality in the world. One in seven children die before her/his fifth birthday. UNICEF is trying to step up efforts to bring specialist help to the most vulnerable children.
Tackling malnutrition
Children admitted with severe acute malnutrition are given special feeding and therapeutic care to help rehabilitate them. Once they are stabilized and able to be discharged, they’ll be monitored as part of an eight-week programme at an Outpatient Therapeutic Care Programme (OTP).
OTPs are one-stop shops located in the community that provide children with access to both nutritional help and other medical services, including childhood immunizations.
Farming is the main source of livelihood in the North, and the population is highly mobile, enjoying cross-border trade with such states as Niger Republic. Yet, an upsurge in sectarian violence and attacks on churches and schools in the North have threatened the livelihoods of tens of thousands who live here, contributing to what is already a vulnerable situation.
Although agencies such as UNICEF continue to operate in the region, there is a perceptible nervousness among the population. People are avoiding big cities, and the mobility of farmers and traders is potentially threatened because of security fears. Nigeria is as vulnerable as it is vast.
Disease, poverty and malnutrition are already inflicting a heavy toll despite optimism that this year’s harvest in October will give high yields, the country’s needs are as pressing as those of its neighbors across the parched Sahel.
