A new survey has revealed a really alarming
number of kids who are malnourished in Plateau
State.
Moses Yusuf, the Nutrition Officer for
Plateau, revealed on Saturday that 66 per cent of
children in the state were malnourished.
He made the disclosure at the United Nation’s
Children Fund (UNICEF) mid-year review meeting in
Jos.
According to The News Agency of Nigeria, he
explained that the figure was arrived at following
the Standardised Monitoring of Relief and
Transition (SMART) survey, conducted by the
Federal Government in 2015.
Yusuf described as very ”alarming,” the level of
malnutrition among children and that five out of ten
children in state remain malnourished.
According to the SMART report of 2015, over 66
per cent of children in Plateau are totally
malnourished.
”The reports shows that 43.7 suffer from stunting,
18.1 per cent are underweight, while 4.6 per cent
are wasting. When you compare the 2014 with 2015
SMART survey, you will realise that the situation in
Plateau is getting worse.
”So, the need for government and other relevant
agencies to put all hands on deck so as to arrest
this ugly trend before it gets out hand, becomes
necessary.”
Yusuf further explained that with the high level of
stunting in the state, children were prone to kidney,
skin, eye and other endemic diseases, which might
be very expensive to treat.
”Stunting is a very serious issue now in Nigeria and
it is irreversible after 1000 days, meaning that it
may be expensive treating it in the future. So, if we
don’t treat preventable diseases now, it may be a
serious issue handling it in the near future,” he
said.
He challenged mothers and parents in general, to
take the nutrition of their wards with utmost
seriousness.