Child Malnutrition Deaths in Kaduna Witness Steady Decline

According to the Kaduna government, its high-impact cost-effective nutrition interventions have led to a steady decline in the number of children dying due to severe malnutrition.

Kaduna’s nutrition officer, Ramatu Haruna, disclosed this in Kaduna on Thursday at a two-day review meeting of the State Committee on Food and Nutrition.

Ms. Haruna explained that the number of deaths decreased from 672 in 2017 to 221 in 2018. She added that the number increased to 323 in 2019 and continued a downward trend to 142 in 2020, 58 in 2021, 37 in 2022, and three as of February 2023.

Ms. Haruna also lauded the steady rise in the number of people attending Support Group Meetings under Community Infant and Young Person Feeding services.

The nutrition officer said the attendance increased from 96,673 in 2018 to 137,343 in 2019, 169,569 in 2020, 205,469 in 2021, and 316,203 in 2022.

She disclosed that 68,769 had attended the support group meeting as of February 2023.

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Haruna explained that through the support group meetings, mothers and caregivers openly discussed and learned about infant and young child feeding (IYCF) information and practices.

She said the impressive performance indicated the communities’ growing confidence in the services provided.

The nutrition officer attributed the successes recorded in improving the nutrition indices of children in the state to interventions by the Kaduna government, with support from development partners.

“There is also increased access to services from 77 health facilities in 15 local government areas (LGAs) in 2021 to 117 facilities in the 23 LGAs in 2022 under the Outpatient Therapeutic Programme (OTP),” she said.

Linda Yakubu, director of Development Aid Coordination, PBC, said the objective of the review meeting was to collate updates on nutrition interventions from implementing MDAs.

Ms. Yakubu said the meeting was also organised to build the capacity of nutrition desk officers in MDAs on optimal nutrition modeling and introduce participants to biofortification recipes.

“We will also deliberate and come up with a key message for a proposed nutrition billboard as outlined in the KDMSPAN.”