Daily Times

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government has issued directives and declared a health emergency after the emergence of a report saying that around 2.4 million children were malnourished and faced serious food insecurity across the province.

The health department issued a notification to all the concerned departments of KP and declared a emergency for children below the age of five years and directed the entire department to take steps to stop the malnutrition problem in the province.

The health department also directed all the District Headquarter hospitals and decided to establish around 500 distribution centres in the province with the support of Australian Aid of $ 17 million dollars.

Sources in the health department informed this scribe that the national nutrition survey reveals that more than 2.4 million children below the age of five years were malnourished while around 48.8 per cent children were stunted because of insecure food in the province.

According to the United Nations International Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF) report, 44 per cent of children are stunted in Pakistan. This is the third highest percentage of stunted children in the world and means that more than 9.6 million Pakistani children have experienced chronic nutrition deprivation in utero and/or during early childhood.

The report further said that stunting prevalence is slightly higher in male children (48 per cent) than in female children (42 per cent). Stunting disparities among urban and rural population of Pakistan is 37 per cent and 46 per cent respectively.

Talking to Daily Times, the Pakistan Pediatric Association (PPA) President, Professor Dr. Amin Jan, said that more than 52 per cent children were malnourished in KP, adding that more than 4.2 million children were malnourished in the province and faced serious health risks.

He further added that malnourished children were a serious problem for the country in general and the KP in particular, adding that those children who were malnourished were facing health problems like pneumonia, tetanus, measles, diarrhoea and other diseases that risked their lives.

He said that the major cause of malnourished children was the lack of breast feeding awareness among mothers, adding that in developed countries more than 70 per cent mothers breast-fed their suckling babies but in Pakistan the percentage of such mothers was below 30.

He further added that a breast feeding law had been passed from the assembly but there was no implementation of the law as formula milk brands were openly available in the open market and most of the people were using them as feed for their children. He informed that a child should only be given mother’s milk from birth till the first six months while after six months, the mothers could feed their babies with soft food like bananas, potatoes etc.

Dr. Qayum Aurakzai, Child Specialist and General Secretary of the PPA said that the government had established a Nutrition Rehabilitation Center (NRU) unit in every teaching and tertiary care hospital of the province.

He further added that even till now, there was no NRU unit in KP rural areas, while there was no place specified by the government in hospitals where mothers can feed their babies, adding that in developed countries in every hospital, there was a separate unit where mother breast-fed their babies.

He added that in KP most of the children came to the hospital who had tetanus disease while the Tetanus Immune Globulin (TIG) injections were not available for the last many months in the country, adding that the course of injection on one patient is around Rs.20,000 which is not affordable by a poor family.

Dr. Qayum further said that on November 20, the PPA would observe the International Child Day in which the chief minister of KP would be the chief guest.