Gombe cures 11,327 malnourished children in 2018

The Gombe State Government has said it cured not less than 11,327 malnourished children from January to December 2018 across the state.

Malam Sulaiman Mamman, the Nutrition Coordinator of the State Primary Health Care Development Agency (GSPHCDA), disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria ( NAN) in Gombe on Wednesday.

He said 13,655 were admitted during the year under review and 11,327 were cured.

According to him, the remaining figure defaulted due to one reason or the other.

He identified distance as the major reason causing people to default.

He noted that there were only four local government areas out of 11 providing the service, namely Gombe, Dukku, Nafada and Kaltungo.

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Mamman explained that virtually all the clients were less privileged and they found it difficult to pay for transportation to the centres, thus causing the default.

He, therefore, appealed to the state government to scale up and cover the entire 11 local government areas for optimum service.

He said the agency is working with women support groups who are going round the communities to educate people on the need to complete treatment.

According to him, 11,080 cartons of Ready to Use Therapeutic Food were provided by UNICEF for the treatment of the malnourished children during the period.

He also called for the release of counterpart funding to overcome the major challenge facing the programme.