According to Felix Ntibenda, the Arusha Regional Commissioner:
“Malnutrition is a very serious challenge in the country and has been
contributed by a number of factors, including illiteracy, and
negligence.”
He said this here over the weekend when he addressed the
just-concluded third conference on African nutrition whose theme was:
‘Scaling up nutrition is your responsibility’.
The conference was organised by the Federation of African Nutrition
Societies (FANUS)—the continental body for nutrition. It collaborated
with the International Union of Nutritional Sciences (IUNS),
African Nutrition Society and Nutrition Society of UK. It involved more than 1,000 international nutritionists.
The RC called on local government authorities to embrace holistic
approaches and reduce unnecessary deaths resulting from malnutrition,
especially in children under five years old.
Malnutrition is about lack of proper nutrition. It is caused by not
having enough food to eat and not eating enough of the right food or
being unable to use the food that one eats.
This means that malnutrition is actually a result of poverty since one of its causes is lack of enough food to eat, he said.
However, the RC described malnutrition as also being caused by
ignorance and sometimes negligence because in some areas people have
everything, but they don’t eat. “In some areas, people have varieties of
foodstuff, but they do not eat it, and this also leads to
malnutrition,” the RC added.
A senior lecturer with the Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA),
who is also the FANUS president, Prof Joyce Kinabo, described
malnutrition as a serious challenge that has to be addressed.
“…malnutrition is one of the serious health problems affecting a
substantial number of children, particularly those from poor
households,” she pointed out.
She explained that the conference brought on board renowned
nutritionists to share best practices in scaling up nutrition on the
continent.
She lamented: “It is very sad that Tanzania leads other East
African countries in agriculture but in some of its areas malnutrition
is alarming.”
She cited Lindi, Mtwara, Iringa, Manyara, Kagera and Rukwa as among regions that are hardly hit by malnutrition.
According to the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, the problem
is also very acute in children under five years of age because stunting
affects 42 percent of them. Moreover, about a third of children aged
6-59 months are iron and vitamin A deficient while 69 percent are
anaemic.SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
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