HEALTH-NIGERIA: Hope For Malnourished Children

By Toye Olori Reprint | | Print |

Toye Olori

LAGOS, Dec 29 1998 (IPS) - Nigeria’s government and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have embarked on a programme to save millions of malnourished children in the West African country.

Health officials say more than 20 percent of Nigeria’s population lack iodine and that more than 16 percent and 35 percent are at risk of vitamin A, which causes night blindness, and of iron deficiency, which causes anemia.

Malnutrition accounts for 50 percent of all deaths of children below the age of five in Nigeria, according to the officials.

Although the government says it has iodized 98 percent of salt consumed, the gains are being eroded by consumption of uniodized salt and the use of traditional baked salts, a habit practiced by Nigeria’s rural poor, who make up the majority of the country’s 110 million population.

“Iodine deficiency disorders will persist within its pockets of endemicity until those who bake edible salt are sufficiently convinced and empowered to change their habit which is a result of ignorance and economic hardship,” says Frank Onyezili of Unicef’s nutrition section in Nigeria.

Prior to the programme’s take off in 1993, the Nigerian government and Unicef in 1990, established a National Committee for Food and Nutrition to coordinate nutritional efforts at all levels of the Nigerian society.

Nigeria’s 36 state governments were also directed to establish similar committees which now exist in about 20 states.

The programme is, however, laden with problems. Lack of funding at the coordinating and implementing levels as well as inadequate capacity of the Committee on National Food and Nutrition, have affected the programme, a Unicef official told IPS last week.

Last week a group of nutritionists met in the south-eastern Nigerian town of Port Harcourt where they expressed concern about the lack of seriousness on the part of some implementing agencies on food and nutrition programme.

In a statement made available to IPS, the participants, drawn from the federal and state ministries, hospitals, Unicef, non- governmental organisations as well as the media, noted the discrepancies between the programme’s goals and the attitude towards it’s implementation.

The participants appealed for more help and urged the implementing agencies to ensure that they carry out specific activities backed with relevant data.

As part of efforts to further boost micronutrient and ensure proper implementation of the programme, the Nigerian government in November put in place a Food and Nutrition Policy to improve the nutritional status, particularly of women and children.

The policy also aims to reduce hunger, micronutrient deficiencies, low-birth weight, diet-related communicable diseases and infections and parasitic diseases by a considerable percentage.

The policy was applauded by the participants in Port Harcourt who called for the publication of a journal on public nutrition to enhance awareness.

Unicef says it will carry out a survey on the prevalence of zinc deficiency among Nigerian children next year.

John Egbuta, who is Unicef Project Officer for Nutrition, said the programme would step up dietary diversification based on nutrition education and integration of fortification of flour with iron and zinc.

He said the programme would promote the adding of iodine in salt to reduce Iodine Deficiency Prevalence, the distribution of Vitamin A and Iron capsules, increasing of health education, reaching out to communities, policy makers and opinion leaders and train health workers.

It also will fortify selected food items with vitamin A, promote exclusive breast feeding and complementary food production through vegetable gardening and establish a micronutrient laboratory.

A Unicef document made available to IPS shows that apart from causing diarrhoea, localised skin lesions, loss of appetite and hair loss, zinc deficiency is associated with delayed wound healing and defects in night vision.

The deficiency, it says, leads to lower-birth weight, poor growth in childhood, reduced immuno-competence, increased infections and complications of pregnancy as well as causes mental lethargy and slow sexual development in boys.