Uganda: malnutrition

Kampala
Ms Grace Komuhindo sat quietly under a tent, holding her one-and-a half year-old baby at the nutrition unit at Mulago National Referral hospital. She was here to get treatment for the baby. Weak, emaciated and frail, with sunken eyes, the baby can neither crawl nor stand. She is severely malnourished and weighs only six kilograms-almost the same weight that some children would have at birth.
Dr Samson Muddu, a pediatrician at the hospital said ideally, Komuhindo’s baby should weigh at least 12 kilogrammes. “This child is suffering from severe acute malnutrition and it is life threatening,” said Dr Muddu.
According to the World Health Organisation, severe acute malnutrition is characterised by a child having low weight for its height, low height for its age and cases usually occur when children do not have enough food with all the required nutrients to keep them healthy.Dr Elizabeth Kiboneka, who heads the Mwanamugimu Nutrition Unit at the hospital, said the unit is overwhelmed by the high numbers of children being treated for malnutrition. The children, she said are referred from different health centres across the country. She said at least 50 per cent of children admitted at the hospital have a nutrition-related problem. But the problem of malnutrition is more manifest at the outpatient clinic where an average of 60 children are treated on each of the two days the clinic is open.
Dr Kiboneka said most of the mothers of children admitted at the unit are between the ages of 17 and 24, with no knowledge of how to properly take care of their babies. This is the case with Ms Komuhindo who is just 18-years-old.
Dr Sarah Kiguli who heads the Paediatric and Child health department at the hospital said malnutrition remains a big child health problem. She explained that malnutrition, malaria and respiratory infections are the leading causes of morbidity and mortality and a high burden of these conditions continue to undermine efforts to achieve social economic development.
The state of population report 2008 that is produced by the Population Secretariat notes that at least 38 per cent of all Ugandan children under the age of five are stunted. Another six per cent are wasted, meaning they have low weight for their height while 16 per cent are under weight-meaning that they have low weight for their age.
The report shows that this poor health status of children is also responsible for the high infant and child mortality rates currently at 76 and 137 deaths for every 1000 live births respectively.
Severe acute malnutrition is the most common cause of death among children under the age of five at Mulago Hospital. “About 40 per cent of the children who are admitted here end up dying because most of them come with many other complications and infections and if interventions are not immediate, they die,” said Dr Kiguli.
At the Mwanamugimu Nutrition Unit where most of the cases are referred, Dr Kiguli said more than 100 children, with advanced stages of malnutrition are currently admitted.
http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/905438/-/wxyeei/-/