PESHAWAR: Health experts have expressed concern over prevalence of malnourishment among over 50 per cent children and mothers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata. They termed it the main cause of stunting and wasting and low immunity in the province.

They have called for awareness at community level to promote exclusive breastfeeding and use of fresh vegetables and fruits for protection of mother and child from the preventable ailments.

“We can tackle malnourishment through home-based awareness to ensure safety of mother and child. It starts at home as women don’t get the desired food due to misconceptions,” Dr Abdul Jamil of Unicef told participants of a consultative meeting.

The meeting was organised by Micronutrient Initiative in collaboration with SUNCSA, Pak and United Rural Development Organisation (URDO) on Thursday.

Experts call for awareness to promote breastfeeding, use of vegetables

Dr Jamil said that they should inform family heads about the benefits of breastfeeding and eating fresh vegetables and fruits instead of using market milk. He said that taboos surrounding childbirths hampered promotion of natural milk, a complete diet for infant up to two years. He added that there was need of coordination among gynaecologists and paediatricians to improve mother and child health indicators.

Dr Shabina Raza, the director-general health services, said that an integrated programme with an outlay of Rs19 billion was launched to improve healthcare indicators with focus on mother and child health.

“We are also establishing stabilisation centres at the district hospitals for women and newborns and taking concrete measures to increase awareness about the advantages of family planning methods,” she added.

Dr Shabina, a paediatrician, said that coverage of lady health workers and strengthening district headquarters was underway along with health education to the population to reduce burden of diseases.

MPAs Zarin Zia, Aisha Naeem, Naseem Hayat, Dina Naz, Meraj Hamayun Khan, Salim Khan and Sardar Hussain were critical of promotion of formula milk and stressed the need for enhanced awareness.

Zaheer Khattak of URDO said that role of parliamentarians was important for the success of nutrition programmes because they were involved in making of policies, plans and budgets.

Dr Mohammad Irshad Danish, citing 2011 National Nutrition Survey, said that 35 per cent under five deaths in the country were caused by malnourishment. “Stunting among children in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was 47.8 per cent, wasting 17.3 per cent, anaemia 49 per cent and Vitamin A deficiency is 68.5 per cent,” he added. Dr Danish said that countrywide breastfeeding rate was 37.7 per cent against 41 per cent use of formula milk. He said that an estimated 30 per cent pregnant women were anemic and also needed vitamins.

Dr Faaria Ihsan, the programme manager of Micronutrient Initiative Pakistan’s Right Start Programme, aimed to focus on children for first 1,000 days and improve nutritional status of women and girls, also spoke on the occasion.

She said that the two-year programme was being started in Swabi, Charsadda Battagram, Mardan and Mansehra.

Prof Meher Taj Roghani, the deputy speaker of provincial assembly and also a former head of child health department in Khyber Teaching Hospital, called for promotion of natural crops, gardening and vegetables to cope with malnourishment.

“Malnutrition is a serious threat due to which we have declared it a health emergency and we are implementing nutrition strategy law relating breastfeeding in the province,” she said.

Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2017