Kano – Dr Aisha Ahmed, the Director, Family Health, Kano Primary Health Care Management Board, on Friday said the state needed more awareness to fight malnutrition affecting children.
The director made this known at a one-day state level community based management of severe acute malnutrition in Kano.
She said that the Community Based Management of Severe Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) commenced in Kano in 2009, with support of the United Nations Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF).
The programme, she said, was implemented in six local government areas and had so far admitted more than 37,487 children of about 6-59 months old suffering acute malnutrition and has cured 79.3 per cent in 2014.
“In view of this there is a need for improved quality implementation, to ensure that more children are covered into the programme in terms of recovery.”
Ahmed expressed dismay over how parents in the state were still living in superstitious beliefs about children being malnourished.
She stressed the need for more awareness and commitment from the six local governments where the cases of malnutrition were high and where the CMAM project was being run.
The Executive Secretary of the State Primary Health Care management board, Dr Shehu Abdullahi, expressed optimism that the meeting would find a lasting solution to malnutrition in Kano.
He explained that the high population of Kano and its position in the Sahel triggered the seasonal malnutrition issues which he described as “critical”.
Abdullahi also underscored the importance of harmonisation of activities concerning malnutrition at all levels in the state, noting that many development partners indicated interest in taking a stake in Kano’s malnutrition programme.
NAN reports that Sahel food crisis in 2009 made it necessary to create 30 CMAM centres in six local government areas in Kano and were supported by the UNICEF since then. (NAN)