‘Two million children to die from acute malnutrition in Kano’

No fewer than two million children in Kano are presently suffering from malnutrition, and are prone to life-threatening Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM), the report has shown.

Secretary of Civil Society –Scaling Up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN), Ahmad Tijjani Yau, disclosed this during a workshop with the theme: “Meeting of Key Gatekeepers on Importance of EBF,’’ held in Kano.

Yau said reports of the Multiple Cluster Survey, conducted by the team, indicated Kano Central Senatorial District, which has eight local councils, was worst hit with a large concentration of malnourished children.

He expressed worries that the affected kids, aged between six and 23 months, lacked adequate and basic care to sustain the required nutrients.

Worse still, Yau added that less than 40 percent of the children had access to Minimal Dietary Diversities (MDD).

He said: “So far, the 2019 Dietary Diversity baseline surveys have been conducted in some local councils in Kano, with the intent to map out strategies to further curb the menace. Yet, we are still emphasising the essence to continue to scale up the fight against malnutrition in the state”.

However, Kano State Nutrition Officer (SNO), Halima Musa Yakasai, said investigations unveiled that 10.8 percent of children within the age bracket of six months and five years were malnourished.

Yakasai maintained that 2.8 percent were severely wasted, with 58.8 percent stunted and 32.89 percent, severely stunted.

She disclosed that statistics obtained in July 2020, indicated that 20,037 malnourished children were admitted into various CMAM facilities in Kano, stating that out of this number, 3,338 were cured. 

She lamented that cultural belief was one of the challenges that either encouraged or discouraged habits that enhanced threats posed by malnutrition.

She added that lack of early release of funds for the implementation of nutrition activities constituted partly to the challenges.

She said: ”Community-based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) programmes are ongoing in 13 local councils in the state. The councils include Bichi, Dawakin Tofa, Dambatta, Doguwa, Gwarzo, Kano Municipal, Madobi, Nassarawa, Takai, Sumaila, Ungogo, and Wudil. We are scaling up with Gabasawa.

“We will continue to do our best. We will conduct review meetings on dietary diversification monthly collection of data to help us monitor and improve our nutrition programmes.”