By Mustapha Yauri
AHMADU Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH), in Collaboration with West African Society of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (WASPEN) distributed therapeutic foods in communities around ABUTH to prevent malnutrition in the area.
Ms Comfort Olurise, the Clinical Consultant Pharmacist, Department of Pharmaceutical Services, ABUTH, who is also a team lead, made this known at an event to commemorate the 2024 Malnutrition Awareness Week in Zaria, Kaduna State, on Wednesday.
The awareness week is an annual campaign to educate healthcare professionals and consumers about the detection, intervention and treatment of malnutrition.
Olurise, therefore, said that the outreach at Mile-Goma community in Giwa Local Government Area of Kaduna State, was to assess and screen residents of the community for malnutrition. She added that people found to be at risk of malnutrition during the outreach would be referred to ABUTH for further management.
Olurise said the week was to educate and empower healthcare practitioners, mothers and caregivers on the dangers of malnutrition and the importance of early identification of symptoms. She explained that the idea was to improve on management, with a view to giving desired outcomes and prevention of complications on malnutrition in both children and adults.
The team lead noted with dismay that a good number of patients at ABUTH came with disease-related malnutrition, largely due to what she described as “harsh economic realities in the country.
“That is why we are looking at disease-related malnutrition and not just malnutrition. Some diseases are associated with increased risk of malnutrition because of inability to absorb some nutrients, as some patients in intensive care units are not able to eat. Also, some patients will need to be put on other forms of parenteral feeding after undergoing surgery.”
According to her, enteral feeding involves the use of an end-tube; the tube is inserted into the gastrointestinal tubes of patients to enable healthcare providers to administer food directly into gastrointestinal tracks of patients.
“Parenteral feeding involves the use of nutritional products that are delivered directly into the blood stream of patients whose system cannot absorb nutrients through the gastrointestinal track,” Olurise said.
Dr Debora Dodo, a Dietician in the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, said mothers and caregivers in the community would be supported with the therapeutic food to prevent malnutrition in under-five children.
She added that mothers would also be trained on preparation of the therapeutic food from locally available food items such as soybeans, groundnut, maize and vegetables, among others.
She said the outreach and community sensitisation was to cascade the campaign to grassroots and enable women and caregivers to identify the basic nutrients required and sourced locally that would prevent malnutrition.
The awareness week event featured health talks, advocacy and awareness campaigns in wards and clinics of ABUTH. (NAN)
