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Karamoja, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Karamoja region is threatened with increasing cases of malnutrition according to Simon Ondoga, a senior nutritionist in Moroto Regional Referral Hospital.
Odonga says that the malnutrition rate in the region has grown from three in 10 children under five years in 2018 to four in 10 children currently. He told URN that most of these are cases of acute malnutrition, a condition that leads to stunting and low brain development.
The nutritionist said acute malnutrition levels among children in the region is alarming and if not checked would worsen in the near future.
Moroto Regional Referral Hospital receives at least five children with acute malnutrition every day. This is an increase from three cases admitted during the early months of the year. For example, in January, February and March, there were 60, 64, 53 children admitted with acute malnutrition respectively.
According to Ondoga, the figures are likely to rise to four in every 10 children representing 40 percent this month with more than 70 admissions projected. He noted that the number of children suffering from malnutrition in the region could grow because of food insecurity in most households worsened by the lockdown that has left many families unable to get food.
A recent survey on malnutrition in the region, 3 of 10 children in the region have severe acute malnutrition with the other 7 in every 10 having moderate malnutrition due to insufficient feeding. The food insecurity situation is due to low harvests sometimes brought about by prolonged drought and other factors.
The Assistant Community Development Officer of Nadunget sub county, Kalisto Losike notes that more children are creeping to malnutrition status. He said during a recent assessment by the sub-county COVID-19 taskforce, at least four in every 10 children are emaciated showing the signs of malnutrition.
Ondoga recommends an immediate action by the local authorities to ensure that there is continuous case finding and resource mobilization in order to address the surge.
“All the stakeholders should come together to avert the situation which is alarming. One of the ways of addressing sudden spikes of malnutrition is having collective resource mobilization by all stakeholders. Secondly, active case finding by health workers and village health teams. The other way is a general food distribution and blanket supplementary feeding,” said the specialist.
Currently, Moroto regional Referral Hospital and most health facilities in Karamoja do case treatment and management, outpatient treatment and give feeding supplements to the malnourished.
The districts have further built the capacity of the VHTs to identify and refer to children suffering from malnutrition.
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