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Despite its achievements in physical infrastructure, Gombe state has poor record of nutrition among other states in the country. Writes AUWAL AHMAD.
Malnutrition described as one of the major factors affecting the society particularly in northern Nigeria, was found to be more critical in the North West and North East according to NDHS 2013. It stated that global acute malnutrition prevalence were at 13 and 12 percents respectively, with severe acute prevalence at 7 percent in both regions. In the other four zones of the country, global acute malnutrition prevalence were all below five percent, and severe acute malnutrition below 2 percent.The creation of Community Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) in 18 health centres in the four operating local government areas of Nafada, Dukku, Gombe and Kaltungo of Gombe in 2009 though contributed immensely to the fight against the scourge. Menace due to paucity of fundsInvestigation by Blueprint reveals that non release of funds by the state government to ministries, agencies and department for malnutrition treatment has made the situation more alarming.During the visit to some CMAM centres, apart from poor equipment, there was total absence of trained health workers, such as midwives, nurses and doctors to handle critical and emergency cases. The approved budget in 2016 and 2017 allocated to the health sector is grossly inadequate. From the 2016 analysis, the percentage allocated to health was 9.7 per cent. This was grossly inadequate, looking at the growth rate of 3.2 per cent and the influx of internally displaced persons. Findings revealed further that the state is doing poorly in the area of exclusive breast feeding, whereby mothers give only breast milk to children in the first six months, with statistics showing that only eight percent of children in the state are exclusively breast fed.
The worrisome statisticsFrom 2016 to 2018, no fewer than 36,932 malnourished children have been admitted of which 310 children died of acute malnutrition at the 18 community centres in four local government areas in the state.According to the state statistics, 55 of the deaths were recorded between January and August 2018 out of 10,171 children admitted at the 18 centres of which 6,906 were treated and discharged. 385 children were withdrawn by their parents before completing treatment, while 81 did not recover due to complications issues including HIV/AIDS positive.In 2016 about 12,618 malnourished children were admitted; 11,531 of them cured 105 died, 833 defaulted or withdrawn before completion of treatment and 149 did not recover.The statistics revealed further that in 2017, 14,143 children were admitted at the 18 community management of acute malnutrition in the state, 150 deaths were recorded among them, 13,069 were cured and discharged, 710 defaulted or withdrawn from the treatment by the their parents before completion of the treatment and 214 did not recover. Investigation further showed that transporting of the RUTF to CMAM centres in operating local government areas as well as manpower on nutrition programme were also part of the challenges.
NGO reactsThe state coordinator, Nigeria Civil Society Scaling Up Nigeria, Mrs Comfort Mukollo, said the organisation has engaged the media and civil society organisation on ensure efficient use of government resources and improve nutrition activities in the state. She said according to the Nigeria National Health Survey 2018, nutrition situation is characterised by a double burden of malnutrition with about one third of the children under-five years stunted and more than half in the North West with a similar proportion of women overweight or obese aan nearly half of the women of reproductive age (48.5 percent) are also anaemic.“Although acute malnutrition levels are below the critical levels with global acute malnutrition (GAM) rate of 7.2%, the case loads are high among the population of the country. Nigeria faces the challenges of insecurity/conflict in some parts and food deficit, and is the largest importer of rice one of the staple foods. Each year about a million Nigerian children die before their birthday. Malnutrition contributes to nearly half of these deaths.“Pre-school age children and pregnant women are at high risk for under nutrition, high burden of under nutrition is in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa and wasted children have greater chances to die. Everyday, about 8,000 children die from preventable under nutrition related causes. World over, it contributes about 45% or 3.1 million child deaths a year. Across the world, 165 million or one in four children under five years of age are stunted, and 80% of those live in just 14 countries and globally, it is estimated that 19 million children under five suffer from severe wasting,” she added.Mrs. Mukollo equally said the NNHS 2018 also shows that children and women from states in the northern geopolitical zones, (boys as compared to girls), younger children (0-23 months old compared to the 24-59 months old) and teenage women (compared to older women 20-49 years) are at a higher risk of malnutrition.
Stakeholders speak Speaking to blueprint, the chairman, Gombe state Primary Health Care Development Agency (GSPHCDA), Alhaji Yahya Hammari, urged the state government to increase its budgetary allocation to the health sector in order to ensure proper development of the state. He also tasked the government to ensure timely release of all budgetary allocations so as to improve the health indices of the state, especially in relation to malnutrition, family planning and maternal new born and adolescent health. He said the government needed to make health its second priority as against the current education as its first, second and third priorities as unhealthy, because the population cannot adequately exploit the opportunities provided by education or develop meaningfully. The chairman further drew the government’s attention to do the right thing especially now that most of the international donors, which make up for some of the lapses in the health sector were at the verge of leaving the country. The state chairman of Maternal Neonatal Child Health Coalition, Malam Alhassan Yahya, in an interview with Blueprint, said the influx of internally displaced persons, poverty and lack of knowledge of what nutrition is all about have been identified as three key factors that contributed to malnutrition in the state.Mallam Yahya said the Nigeria Health Survey 2018 revealed that Gombe accounts for 44 percent of malnourished children in the country, adding that 45.5 million naira was budgeted for 2019 for malnutrition in the state and the major challenge they are facing is lack of release. Some of the development partners who spoke to Blueprint urged the state government to release funds allocated for food and nutrition in this year’s budget in order to reduce the increasing rate of malnutrition in the state.The executive director, Care for Life, Mr Placidus Peter, emphasised the need for civil society organisation to wake up to their responsibilities, get to the grassroots, mobilise and educate people on the prevention of severe acute malnutrition.He urged media to hold policy makers accountable on the issues of malnutrition and to adopt key policies related to severe acute malnutrition in the state. The permanent secretary, Gombe state Ministry of Economic Planning, Mr Steven Ayuba, said the ministry had a budget line on nutrition for the last four years, with some funds being allocated but said was fluctuating due to some challenges from last year of which the government is trying to address. As it is in Gombe, all the coordinating ministries and agencies in the area of nutrition have decried non-release of funds budgeted for nutrition as the major issue affecting the treatment of the disease in the state.Other factors include non-inclusion of nutrition intervention funds to coordinating ministries and agencies’ refusal to scale up the programme in the remaining seven local government areas of the state, lack of sensitisation and awareness, poverty and cultural beliefs as well as non-improvement on the Community Infant and Young Child Feeding.
