Regina Otokpa 
Disturbed over the high rate of malnutrition, especially Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM), the International Society for Media in Public Health (ISMPH) has said the rate is totally unacceptable for a country not confronted with a war situation. Executive Director of the ISMPH, Mrs Moji Makanjuola, who spoke at the dissemination of the European Union Agents for Citizendriven Transformation (EUACT) supported project on ‘Empowerment of Women and the Prevention of Severe Acute Malnutrition in FCT,’ held in Abuja, regretted that over two million children in Nigeria were suffering from SAM.
Her words: “Nigeria has veryhighlyseriousmalnutritionissuessuchasunderfeeding, overfeeding and wrong feeding; they all have health issues. Of these, underfeeding is our focus in terms of quality and quantity. This is shown because we have well overtwomillionchildrennot justmalnourished butalsoseverelyacutelymalnourished.
“It is a very sad situation and unacceptable for a nation that is not at war. Some of the images of these SAM children are so disturbing that you mistake them for images from a drought zone or war zone. “This status leaves them at the least, wasted, stunted and with weak cognitive and affective domains, and are thus unable to compete with their peers in a 21st century world driven by science and technology that are primarily brain driven.”
Makanjuola, who insisted that the plights of malnutrition was totally avoidable and wholly preventable when actions are taken to feed infants right, called for a diet education for mothers to enable them feed their children with the right food combination. While highlighting poverty as a major factor fuelling malnutrition, the ISMPH chief maintained it could be tackled by empowering women, especially in rural areas, to be able to earn money to enable them purchase healthy meals for their children. Chairman, Technical Management Committee, Association for Advancement of Family Planning (AAFP), Dr Ejike Oji, who regretted that the country allows its population grow beyond its control, said Nigeria has more children than she could adequately take care of. The Focal person, European Union ACT Programme, Ms Seyi Tetteh, said it had become imperative to prevent more children from getting severely malnourished and exploring existing treatment options for children suffering from SAM, such as the Community-Based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) programme, which adopts an innovative and cost effective treatment for those within the SAM bracket.
