From: Femi Oyelola, Kaduna
The Kaduna State Team Lead for Alive & Thrive (A&T), Mrs. Sarah Kwasu has disclosed that half of all under-five mortality is caused by underlying maternal and child undernutrition, including micronutrient deficiencies.
She disclosed this while speaking at a two-day stakeholder meeting on the Scale-Up of Multiple Micronutrient Supplements(MMS) in Zaria.
Speaking on the topic, “Making a case for MMS investment, the A&T State Team Lead observed that the high prevalence of anemia in women of reproductive age and pregnant women in Nigeria is widely recognized as an important public health problem because of its negative consequences for pregnancy outcome and its impact on maternal mortality.
She explained that in addition to anemia, deficiencies such as vitamin A, zinc, vitamin Bi 2, iodine, and folate are also widespread in Nigeria and harm pregnancy outcomes.
Mrs. Sarah Kwasu lamented that improvements in the natural diet and behavioral change are difficult to achieve over a short time for populations in resource constraint countries.
She, therefore, suggested that combining all micronutrients in a multi-supplement and delivery of a multiple micronutrient supplement to women in targeted groups is more programmatically feasible and should be embraced.
