Ghana remains to be grappling with the burden of severe malnutrition (Kwashiorkor) amongst kids greater than 9 many years after it was first recognized within the nation.
To this finish, the Director-General of the Ghana Well being Service (GHS), Professor Samuel Kaba Akoriyea, has expressed grave concerns over the scenario and known as for collective efforts to prioritise baby well being and vitamin for a more healthy inhabitants.
He was talking throughout a courtesy name on administration of the New Occasions Company (NTC), publishers of The Ghanaian Occasions and Spectator in Accra final Wednesday.
Often known as the “Illness of the deposed child when the following one is born” coined from the Ga language, Kwashiorkor is a dietary illness related to protein deficiency and primarily impacts kids at weaning.
“It’s been 92 years since Cecily Williams, a Jamaican pediatrician then working on the Princess Marie Louise Hospital in Accra, outlined the time period Kwashiorkor.
“But, two-thirds of Ghanaian kids are nonetheless malnourished, according to UNICEF,” he lamented.
Prof. Akoriyea pointed to some cultural misconceptions encompassing childhood vitamin, saying; “some nonetheless equate fats kids with good residing, overlooking the dangers of childhood weight problems, which is now on the rise.”
“Now we have not been in a position to ship the suitable messages and a few folks suppose malnutrition is barely about being skinny, however over vitamin can also be a rising drawback,” he mentioned.
The D-G emphasised the necessity for a coordinated method to deal with the problem and known as on stakeholders to deal with baby well being as a shared nationwide precedence.
Based on the 2022 Ghana Demographic and Well being Survey (GDHS), 18.2 per cent of youngsters beneath 5 had been stunted (brief for his or her age), 12.6 per cent had been beneathweight, and 6 per cent had been wasted (skinny for his or her top).
These figures fall in need of World Well being Organisation (WHO) thresholds for low-burden malnutrition, which recommends losing be under 5 per cent, stunting beneath 15 per cent, and underweight prevalence beneath 10 per cent.
The 2023 UNICEF’s State of the World’s Youngsters Report notes that Ghana is amongst nations with “average to excessive” threat of failing to fulfill baby vitamin targets, citing inadequate funding in nutrition-sensitive interventions and weak integration throughout sectors like agriculture, training, and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH).
With barely 5 years to fulfill world well being targets, together with the Sustainable Growth Targets (SDGs), reminiscent of SDG 2 on Zero Starvation, Ghana dangers not assembly the objective if pressing steps are usually not taken.
Malnutrition refers to deficiencies, excesses, or imbalances in an individual’s consumption of vitality and/or vitamins.
The time period addresses three broad teams of situations: Beneath nutrition, which incorporates losing (low weight-for-height), stunting (low height-for-age) and underweight (low weight-for-age), micronutrient-related malnutrition, which incorporates micronutrient deficiencies (an absence of necessary nutritional vitamins and minerals) or micronutrient extra; and chubby, weight problems and diet-related non-communicable illnesses (reminiscent of coronary heart illness, stroke, diabetes and a few cancers.
In kids, malnutrition not solely compromises their bodily and cognitive improvement but in addition undermines nationwide productiveness and financial development.
Poor vitamin in early childhood can result in irreversible injury in mind improvement, decreasing educational achievement and lifelong incomes potential.
BY ABIGAIL ANNOH
