Doctors without Borders to establish additional malnutrition treatment centres in Zamfara

The Doctors Without Borders, an NGO said it would establish additional malnutrition centres in Bukkuyum and Talata-Mafara in Mafara Local Government Areas of Zamfara.
This it noted was in addition to the existing one in Anka Local Government Area of the state.
The state Project Coordinator of the NGO, Dr Alan Pereira, said this in Gusau on Wednesday, when he led a team from the NGO on a courtesy visit to the state Commissioner for Health, Alhaji Lawal M-Liman in his office.
Pereira said that his team was in the commissioner’s office to seek permission from the state government to establish additional malnutrition centers in Talata-Mafara and Anka towns to address the increase of malnutrition in the areas.
He said: “Initially, we have only one malnutrition treatment centre in this state, located in Anka but we also noticed increase of malnutrition cases in Talata-Mafara and Bukkuyum local government areas.
“We are using Anka centre to admit large number of malnourished children from the two local government areas.
“Based on the survey, we discovered severe malnutrition cases in the areas, we are here to seek your permission and support to establish new centres in the areas.
“In our survey, 4.6 per cent of under five children from the two LGAs suffer from severe malnutrition, in our Anka centre, we admit about 130 patients of malnutrition on daily basis.
“We want your intervention to encourage our communities to focus on community based management of malnutrition in order to reduce the increase in the area.’’
Responding, the Commissioner for Health, Alhaji Lawal Liman, commended the efforts of Doctors Without Borders in assisting the state government in reducing malnutrition cases in the state.
He said that the state government was ever ready to partner with donour agencies to enhance health care delivery in the state.
He assured that the ministry would liaise with all stakeholders to look into their request to ensure that the centres were established.
In his remarks, the Executive Secretary of the state Primary Health Care Development Agency, Alhaji Yusuf Mafara, said that the agency was working with stakeholders to enlighten the public on the importance of community based approach to address health issues.
In another development, the Commissioner also received a delegation from the National Centre for Disease Control, led by Consultant of the Centre, Dr Everistus Chijioke-Aniakwu
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the delegation was in the commissioner’s office to discuss the establishment of emergency operations centres by the NCDC to ensure quick response in managing disease outbreaks in the state.