Kaduna State Government has acquired 3,450 cartons of Ready-To-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) worth N100 million for the treatment of malnourished children in the state.
Mrs Ramatu Musa, the state Nutrition Officer made this known in an interview on Tuesday. RUTF was bought with the N100 million recently cash backed by the state government.
Musa said RUTF has been handed over to the State Primary Health Care Board for distribution to Primary Healthcare Centres and Community Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) sites.
According to her, the government recently approved N500 million for the procurement of additional RUTF considering the number of Severe Acute Malnourished (SAM), children in the state.
“This will go a long way in ensuring that no child dies of malnutrition in the state. Along with the treatment of the malnourished children, we are also promoting adequate Infant and Young Child Feeding practices as a strategy for preventing malnutrition among children under five years.”
Also, Mr Umar Bambale, Programme Manager, Kaduna State Emergency Nutrition Action Plan (KADENAP), said the government was doing everything it could to treat all malnourished children in the state.
Bambale said KADENAP was working to ensure the release of the N500 million to procure additional RUTF. The state government had treated 66, 980 out of the 90, 228 SAM children admitted in various CMAM sites between 2017 and 2020.
He added that 11, 983 were treated out of the 17, 979 admitted in 2017, while 17, 124 were treated out of the 21, 996 admitted in 2018.
“Also, 20, 861 out of the 26, 192 admitted in 2019 were treated, while 17, 012 were treated out of the 24,061 malnourished children admitted in 2020. So far, 11, 292 malnourished were undergoing treatment in CMAM sites as of March 31.
We recorded an 8.99 percent decrease in the cure rate of malnourished children from 79.6 percent in 2019, to 70.7 percent in 2020 due to a shortage of RUTF. The N500 million approved by the government as part of efforts to prevent the shortfall from re-occurring.”
