Health
61,000 children affected by Malnutrition in Northwest over insurgency
Malnourished child
From: Ahmed Rufa’i, Dutse
About 61,200 children have been affected by malnutrition and other medical complications from January to May this year in the northwestern part of Nigerian as a result of banditry and other insecurity activities in the region, the Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has said.
Malnourished children being attended to
This was contained in a press statement issued by the field communication officer of the Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) Mr. Abdulkareem Yakubu in Dutse
The statement indicated that, “malnutrition crisis is escalating in northwest Nigeria, prompting international medical organisation, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) to reinforce its activities in the zone”.
According to the statement “Between January and May this year, MSF teams in northwest Nigeria provided inpatient care to 10,200 severely malnourished children with medical complications and admitted 51,000 children to its outpatient feeding programmes”.
Yakubu noted that”MSF has opened three new outpatient therapeutic feeding centres, in addition to the 10 inpatient centres and 32 outpatient centres that it already manages across Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara states.
The international organization warned that the current humanitarian response is insufficient to avert a potential catastrophe in the coming months.
“Inpatient admissions were 26 per cent higher than in the same period in 2022 – numbers which were already unprecedently high”.
The statement explained further that” Northwest Nigeria has some of the worst health indicators in the country.
“Escalating levels of violence in recent years have contributed to turning an alarming malnutrition situation into a full-blown crisis. Armed groups regularly raid towns, loot property and kidnap local people for ransom”.
The Doctors Without Boarder maintained that “Many residents have fled their homes to safer areas while others have stayed but are unable to access their farms or places of work due to the worsening insecurity”.
“This year, admissions are expected to continue rising. The ‘lean season’ – the period between harvests when stocks of food run low, which runs from May to August in Nigeria – only began recently, but bed occupancy is already at 100 per cent in several MSF treatment centres”.
“The number of malnourished children that we’re receiving in our facilities are a strong indicators that the further we get into the lean season, the more cases we’ll receive,” says MSF medical coordinator Htet Aung Kyi.
“People in need of medical care face challenges reaching health centres and hospitals because of the risks of travelling on unsafe roads”.
“Despite the escalating crisis, northwest Nigeria lacks the attention and support required to set up a lifesaving response, which needs to include preventive measures such as food distributions and improvements to food security, as well as the early detection of malnutrition cases and timely treatment.
“MSF urges all aid organisations working in the country to scale up their humanitarian response, and calls on the Nigerian government and local health authorities to act now to prevent a catastrophic loss of life in the months ahead, the statement emphasis.
The MSF teams say that children who recover from malnutrition and are discharged tp home often need to be readmitted later as their families struggle to find enough food to keep them healthy, “this keeps children stuck in a spiral of malnutrition from which it is difficult to escape”.
According to the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, an estimated 78 per cent of people in northwest Nigeria live below the poverty line. Healthcare is often unaffordable or hard to access, and many children have never been vaccinated against common childhood diseases. A very limited amount of international aid reaches the region. All these factors have contributed to the growing numbers of malnourished children in urgent need of treatment.
From: Ahmed Rufa’i, Dutse
Diphtheria outbreak in Kano has claimed not less than 520 children the Director General primary healthcare development agency in the state, Muhammad Nasir Muhammad has disclosed
The DG of the agency made the disclosure in a key note address presented at a one day orientation for media practitioners on Diphtheria Outbreak drawn from JIgawa, Kano, Katsina and Sokoto states.
The director general attributed the situation to poor rotten immunisation made with high number of zero doses among the children in the state.
Dr Muhammad decried the shortage of diphtheria vaccine in the states, Kano in particular with about 8,000 confirmed cases representing 80 percent cases.
According to him “The state recieved 200,000 dosage of vaccine and less than one million doses after the outbreak of the disease. But according to our findings we need over 6 million children to be vaccinated”.
He called on the federal government and partners to do something urgently for the speed and effective control, “I use this opportunity to appreciate UNICEF for their commitment on emergency response support”.
Speaking earlier the Chief of UNICEF Field Office in Kano Mr. Rahama R Mohammed Farah described the current Diphtheria Outbreak as a threat to child survival, health and the well-being of children
Mr Farah noted that “It is very important to understand that the Analysis of the vaccination status of the suspected cases shows that 60.8% of all suspected cases are children who were not
vaccinated”.
“As of last week, over 400 suspected cases with 11 deaths have been reported in Kano state.
Eight LGAs are the most affected: They are Ungogo (2651), Dala (989), Fagge (943), Gwale (714), Kumbotso (713), Nassarawa (538), Kano Municipal (506) and
Tarauni (269)”.
He disclosed that “UNICEF is therefore collaborating with government and partners to respond to the emergency to save lives of children affected”.
According to him, the Kano field office hss been giving support to the Diphtheria Response since the first case of the Diphtheria disease in December 2022, “UNICEF has been working with government and partners to respond to the emergency”.
“UNICEF has been and continue to support the diphtheria response in Nigeria focusing on providing technical and financial support to the government in all affected states including Kano state to implement the Diphtheria outbreak response”, Farah emphasis”.
He indicated that the outbreak needs to be urgently stopped, controlled and prevented from spreading, “last week, UNICEF delivered 1.2 million vaccines to the Kano State government in our continuing support to the government for response to the Diphtheria outbreak as Diphtheria is a highly contagious, infectious disease that can cause death”.
“The media has a key role to play particularly in infection prevention and risk communication and community engagement; You will need to educate the public and increasing the awareness of parents, and communities on the disease and the outbreak, on the importance of immunization and what parents need to do in case
of suspected cases and how to prevent infection from further spreading”, UNICEF said.
***Urges Staff to take adequate care of their mental health
The Director General of the Institute of Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR), Dr. Joseph Ochogwu has indicated that the well-being of individual workman is key to productivity in the work place.
Speaking at a Health Talk session titled, “Mental Health/Emotional Intelligence,” Dr. Ochogwu urged staff of the Institute to take proper care of their mental issues.
Ochogwu pointed out that the Individual’s well-being is key to productivity in the work place.
“We need that state of mental health balance to overcome challenges.
“Things are not getting easy now, we need unique kind of skill in balancing our individual’s well-being because if you don’t balance your individual’s well-being even your family’s well-being will suffer.”
Addressing staff of the Institute, the resource person of the programme and founder of Secure D Future International Initiative, Dr. Sa’adatu Adamu, also urged staff to take care of their health.
Dr. Adamu noted that while about 970 million people are struggling with mental health worldwide, 284 million people are struggling with anxiety.
She noted that positive thinking reflect on the psychological being of an individual, adding that negative thoughts are dangerous to one’s wellbeing.
She also told the staff that it is important that each individual takes care of himself and controls what comes into his mind, adding that when somebody dwells so much on the negative, such a person is taking a destructive part.
The expert noted that depression, one of the major metal health challenges affects so many people, advising the staff to fill their minds with positive thoughts at all time, in other to live above depression and other associated challenges.
She said that it is estimated that about 40.3 percent of people died worldwide because of mental health, adding that in this part of the world, “we are still struggling to understand mental health.”
Listing the negative effects associated with depression, Dr. Adamu indicated that the estimate of people going through mental health is higher in the country.
The mental health expert, who noted that things are difficult in the country, warned the staff not to allow their minds to dwell on what they couldn’t control, urging them to think positively and take things the way they come.
According to her, dwelling on what one can not control only makes things worse and at the end depression sets in.
She noted that the last stage of depression is when one begins to think of committing suicide, adding, “mental health is something everyone should pay attention to.”
The Director General of the Institute of Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR), Dr. Joseph Ochogwu has raise concern over report that about 970 million people are struggling with mental health worldwide and 284 million people contending with anxiety.
Speaking at the Health Talk session titled, “Mental Health/Emotional Intelligence,” Dr. Ochogwu urged staff of the Institute to take adequate care of their mental issues as individual well-being is key to productivity in the work place.
“We need that state of mental health balance to overcome challenges. Things are not getting easy now, we need unique kind of skill in balancing our individual well-being because if you don’t balance your individual well-being even your family well-being will suffer.”
The resource person of the programme and founder of Secure D Future International Initiative, Dr. Sa’adatu Adamu, also urged staff to take care of their health.
She noted that positive thinking reflect on the psychological being of an individual, adding that negative thoughts are dangerous to one’s wellbeing.
She also told the staff that it is important that one takes care of himself and controls what comes into his mind, adding that when one dwells too much on the negative, such person is taking a destructive part.
The expert noted that depression, one of the major metal health challenges affect so many people, advising the staff to fill their minds with positive thoughts at all time, in other to live above depression and other associated challenges.
She said that it is estimated that about 40.3 percent of people died worldwide because of mental health, adding that in this part of the world, “we are still struggling to understand mental health.”
Listing the negative effects associated with depression, Dr. Adamu said that the estimate of people going through mental health is higher in the country.
The mental health expert, who noted that things are difficult in the country, warned the staff not to allow their minds to dwell on what they couldn’t control, urging them to think positively and take things the way they are.
According to her, dwelling on what one can not control only makes things worse and at the end depression sets in.
She noted that the last stage of depression is when one begin to think of committing suicide, adding, “mental health is something everyone should pay attention to.”
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