At Khalifa Isyaka Rabiu Pediatric Hospital in Kano Hassan Adamu, the 12-month-old twin of Hussain Adamu looks very fragile and sleek waiting for the state government to re-supply Ready To Use Therapeutic Food ( RUTF).
Hassan, who was being taken care of by his grandmother Halima after his mother passed away as a result of complacency she developed after their birth looks extremely small and every movement seems to cost him energy.
Similar to their older brother Usman, Hassan and Hussain were born with severely malnourished
Hussain was, however, discharged from the facility, when THE QUEST TIMES visited.
The grandmother asserts that both Hassan and Hussaini were released on July 2, but Hassan’s condition worsened once the RUTF provided to them ended.
“Hassan’s condition worsened after the RUTF given to us at the facility finished, and after returning to see a doctor, we were readmitted 10 days ago,” she explained in Hausa.
Additionally, she urged the recently inaugurated state governments to restock the plump nuts given to children before something disastrous happens to them.
In the interview with THE QUEST TIMES, a senior dietician at the Khalifa Isyaka Pediatric Hospital, Isyaku Danjuma, said the late mother of the twins, Raliya was regular visitor of their facility, ” because the twins were not her only children who were born malnourished.
He said when the twins were born, he recalls how she feared that they might also end up being malnourished like their brothers and very close cousins.
When they were born Hassan and Hussain were so small, frail, sick, and tired that they could barely breathe. The twins’ chance of survival was alarmingly low.
The twins were later screened for signs of malnutrition using a simple plastic tape that measures the upper arm’s circumference. If a child falls in the red zone, they have severe acute malnutrition.
The twins were measured and immediately referred for treatment at the health center, which is more than 500 kilometers from their home in the Gaya Local Government Area, because they showed signs of malnutrition and poor health, like other over 500 thousand children within the state.
A member of the state nutrition working told this reporter that the serious lack of synergy between the state Ministry of Health and the State Primary Health Care Management Board is one of the major causes that is tiptoeing the progress of the cause.
Ibrahim Garba Maryam, a member of the state nutrition working group, told this reporter that one of the main factors stalling the cause’s advancement is the severe lack of coordination between the state Ministry of Health and the State Primary Health Care Management Board.
Malnutrition is a multicausal problem, involving several issues such as access to food, health care, water and sanitation, education, climate change, gender inequalities, etc. Whereas the large majority of programmes fighting undernutrition take place in crisis and emergency situations, malnutrition exists primarily in stable contexts.
Malnutrition is the cause of 45% of deaths in children under five, making it the leading cause of child mortality worldwide.
Kano State according to the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund ( UNICEF ) has the highest number of malnourished children in Nigeria.
Bichi and Sumaila local government areas were the areas most affected by the issue of malnourished children, however, Danjuma also noted that the cases are prevalent around the state metropolis.