By Justina Asishana, Minna

Sixty-eight children have died as a result of severe acute malnutrition in the Niger State.

The Niger State Nutrition Officer, Hajiya Asmau Mohammed disclosed this at a two-day review meeting on allocation, releases and utilisation of nutrition budget with key stakeholders from the Legislature and Nutrition Line Ministries in Niger State organised by the Civil Society Scaling Up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN).

It would be recalled that in March, the state nutritionist said 46 deaths had been recorded between October 2019 and March 2020.

Speaking to nutrition stakeholders during the review meeting, Mohammed said the deaths occurred in the Community Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) centre And Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) centres in the state.

Read Also: Fear over malnutrition heightens

She said the centres had recorded 3,999 admissions of malnutrition cases with over 397 defaulters.

Giving the breakdown, she said the CMAM Center in Mariga during the period under review got a total admission of 3,595 discharging 3,135, adding that there were 379 defaulters and 35 deaths.

In the SAM Centers, which is in seven secondary health facilities across the state, there was total admission of 404 with 298 discharged, adding that 55 are currently on admission while there have been 18 defaulters and 33 deaths.

The nutrition officer, who commended the government for the release of funds for nutrition in the state, said there has been an improvement in the releases of funds but stated that more needs to be done in order for the state to get away from the negative indices of malnutrition.

The Executive Director of the Niger State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr Ibrahim Dangana stated that the activities of the agency have been severely hampered by the non-release of funds.

He also said there are no adequate logistics to embark on monitoring and evaluation of funds released to primary healthcare centres, stating specifically that the agency needs motorcycles and Hilux vans.

In his remark, the Speaker of the Niger State House of Assembly, Honorable Abdullahi Bawa Wuse stated his support towards ensuring that there is an improvement in the funding and release of nutrition budget in the state.

The Project Manager of Civil Society Scaling-up Nutrition in Nigeria, C-SUNN National, Okonkwo Sunday, said one of the critical challenges that drive malnutrition is lack of funding which the pre-budget review meeting seeks to address.