Kano govt must address anaemia in pregnant women – Expert

Multiple Micronutrient Supplements (MMS) needs to be provided more in Kano to address the scourge of anaemia among pregnant women, an expert has said.

Sunday Okoronkwo, the Executive Secretary of Civil Society – Scaling up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN) gave the advice on Thursday in Kano.

He spoke at a media engagement on the uptake of Multiple Micronutrient Supplements (MMS) for anaemia prevention and control in Nigeria.

Mr Okoronkwo said the Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) 2023, revealed that 51.9 per cent of under-five-year children in Kano are affected by stunting due to malnutrition.

He said the authorities need to urgently address anaemia by focusing on maternal and child malnutrition.

He described anaemia as a preventable yet prevalent cause of maternal and child mortality.

Quoting from the NDHS survey, Mr Okoronkwo said about four out of every 10 children in the state (38.4 per cent) are underweight with almost two out of every 10 (10.4 per cent) suffering wasting.

He said nationally, the survey showed four out of every 10 (40 per cent) children under five are stunted (compared to the 37 per cent stunting rate in 2023) with about six (55 per cent) out of 10 women of reproductive age suffering anaemia.

Implications

Other participants at the event said stunting hinders economic growth and cognitive development in children.

They said the condition also weakens immunity, increases vulnerability to illness and death and contributes to reduced productivity later in adulthood.

The acting Programme Manager with SC-SUNN, Kunle Shola, said stunting is used globally to measure national development.

He said once a child is stunted, it is irreversible; the condition can only be managed with Ready to Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF).

When a child is stunted, he/she is too short of his/her age.

Mr Shola said aside from physical appearance; stunting affects the cognitive development of the child.

“The child will not have good brain development and will not be able to give out his/her full potential to the world because of the brain development impairment,” he said.

“The child will grow up from being a stunted child to a stunted adult which he/she cannot contribute meaningfully in the workforce and cannot contribute to the economic development of Kano state”, Mr Shola warned.

Government aware

The Kano State Secretary of the Food and Nutrition Committee, Dalhatu Danladi, at the event, said the government was aware of malnutrition in the state and is making efforts to reduce it.

Mr Dalhatu said the state government is implementing various nutrition interventions for children, women, and the elderly.

“We have nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive interventions where about 12 MDAs are responsible for implementing nutrition programmes.

“Huge amounts of money has been set aside every year by the government to ensure that the issue around nutrition landscape ranging from stunting, wasting, underweight and other implicated diseases are being controlled by the state”, the official said.

Government must do more

Several speakers at the engagement suggested that the government invest more in the uptake of Multiple Micronutrient Supplements (MMS) by pregnant women, especially during antenatal care visits.

The MMS has 15 essential micronutrients, including iron and folic acid, which are key in preventing anaemia in pregnancy.

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The steering committee co-chairman of scaling up Nutrition in Nigeria, Aji Robinson, said the government should harness the Child Nutrition Fund (CNF), a catalytic financing match mechanism by UNICEF that enables governments to double their investments in essential nutrition commodities, including MMS, for the prevention and treatment of anaemia.