Gombe on red alert for severe acute malnutrition

Following the shortage in supply of Ready to Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) needed to treat malnutrition in children particularly those under the age of 5, there is a great fear of an outbreak of malnutrition-related diseases in Gombe State.

The discovery of some severely malnourished children in some parts of the state who are facing death any moment if immediate attention is not given to them.

During an assessment visit to the Gidan Magani Centre of the Community Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) site on Tuesday morning, it was discovered that the attention of Gombe State government was urgently needed to address the situation after the Ready to Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) used to revive the acutely malnourished children had been unavailable for more than four months before now.

According to the Nutrition Officer of Gombe Local Government Area, Mohammed H. Bawa, since 25th January 2019 when they had the last supply of the RUTF, the supply only resumed last Friday on the 19th July 2019.

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Our Correspondent who was with other malnutrition stakeholders on the visit gathered that more worrisome is the fact that the last supply may be the last following issues of lack of counterpart funding from the State Government and the likely withdrawal of UNICEF from the RUTF programme.

Mohammed H. Bawa told Journalists, Civil Society Organizations and the International Society for Media in Public Health (ISMPH) that he took stock of 500 cartons of the RUTF on Monday 22nd July, 2019 after its release last Friday saying that the stock may last for only two months in the centre considering the high patronage from within and especially outside Gombe, the state capital.

While at the site, our correspondent saw several mothers with their malnourished children waiting to be attended to at the CMAM site with some of the women, who visited the clinic for only routine immunization, were referred to the CMAM centre following the ignorance of the parents over the status of their severely malnourished children.

Seventeen months old Ahmadu Mohammed, who was brought in by his mother, Fatima Mohammed, weighed 5.2kg and 29.2 in length when they first came to the centre in the morning from Kurba village, the home town of the current Speaker of the Gombe State House of Assembly, Honourable Ibrahim Abubakar Sadiq in Yamaltu-Deba Local Government Area.

According to Fatima, Ahmadu’s mother, she had been giving her child traditional treatment when she noticed the change in her child since April this year but had to come to Gombe after being informed of the centre.

Another severely malnourished child, Fatima Babangida, nine months old, who was brought to the centre by her mother, Fatsuma Babangida, expressed ignorance of the exclusive breastfeeding formula during her ante-natal days saying that she had been feeding the baby with whatever they eat in the house for a very long time.

The case in Gombe State has become very dangerous following the non-release of counterpart funding for appropriated nutrition activities from the state government coupled with the fact that UNICEF, a major financer of the RUTF may no longer be funding the programme.

Also, volunteers working in the centres who ensure the interface between parents at different communities have disappeared following their disappointment of non-offer of permanent employment by the state government after working for over six months.

All efforts to get government reaction on the situation proved abortive as some of the officials of State Ministry of Health contacted declined comment saying that they are not allowed to speak to the press on such issues.