Save our children from malnutrition

MALNUTRITION is a silent emergency in PNG and the underlying cause for the majority of deaths of children under the age of five.
This situation is seriously limiting not only children’s growth outcomes but also their future learning and income earning potential which further perpetuates the inter-generational cycle of malnutrition and poverty.
Children who suffer from malnutrition are likely to die of treatable diseases like diarrhoea and chest infections.
A child’s physical growth and mental development can become permanently impaired and in severe cases, the child can die of malnutrition if not treated.
Malnutrition occurs when poor consumption of nutritious food threatens the healthy functioning of the body and its organs.
Symptoms include underweight, physical stunting, muscle wasting, weak ability to mentally concentrate and increased vulnerability in children to illnesses, such as pneumonia and diarrhoea.
Malnutrition cannot be addressed just by the health sector, but it is an obligation for all concerned sectors to allocate resources to their respective nutrition sector interventions.
The population needs to be educated on the importance of food fortification, food production and livelihood if PNG wants to grow its economy.
That is the reality we all have to face following revelations through a report that child under-nutrition in PNG will cost the economy an equivalent of K1.5 billion in the 2015-2016 fiscal year.
The report – Short Changed: The Human and Economic Cost of Child Under-nutrition in Papua New Guinea – was done in partnership with Frontier Economics and released in June last year.
It is essential to put in place the necessary conditions to detect and treat severe malnutrition cases as quickly as possible
PNG’s national Nutrition Strategic Action Plan is being formulated to tackle the high rates of malnutrition in the country. And it will need the political commitment from the government to drive it.
A well planned and well executed long term project can accelerate the developmental process and the benefits can be rewarding and permanent.
Nutritional planning involves formulation of a nutrition policy and overall long term planning to improve production and supplies of food, ensure its equitable distribution and programmers to increase the purchasing power of people.
This may include, land reforms, proper guidance in agriculture to help farmers to get better yields from their lands, help in proper marketing of farm produce.
This will also lead to the need for an improved health care system.
Infections like malaria, measles and diarrhoea are prevalent in our society and they precipitate acute malnutrition among children and infants.
A good health care system that provides immunisation, oral rehydration, periodic de-worming, early diagnosis and proper treatment of common illnesses can go a long way in preventing malnutrition in the society.
According to the 2016 Annual Report on Child Morbidity and Mortality by The Child Health Advisory Committee of the PNG National Department of Health and The Paediatric Society, malnutrition needs both prevention and treatment.
Prevention of malnutrition at the community level is the best way to avoid children dying from malnutrition.
Identification and timely treatment of children with severe malnutrition is also essential and often poorly done in hospitals.
The report said: Although malnutrition is usually not the primary reason children present, severe malnutrition was present in 11.6 per cent of admissions, making it in the top five most common problem seen in hospitals. Malnutrition either directly caused or contributed to 26 per cent of all deaths, and many additional children had moderate malnutrition
This report covers admissions and outcomes for children in 2016 from 14 provincial hospitals.
People need to be educated on the nutritional quality of common foods, importance and nutritional quality of various locally available and culturally accepted low cost foods, importance of exclusive breastfeeding for six months and continuing to breast feed up to two years or beyond and importance of immunising their children and following proper sanitation in their day to day life.
Malnutrition situation must be addressed through comprehensive management system as it is a serious and often life threatening condition with terrible consequences.