Severe cases of malnutrition are admitted at Gulu Regional Referral Hospital (GRRH) in Gulu City for better management. Photos by Phillips Kica.
By Phillips Kica
Gulu
Gulu District health officials are worried about the high prevalence of malnutrition among expectant mothers in the district.
Acute malnutrition is a sudden and drastic reduction in nutritional intake, leading to anemia, diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting.
The district health report for September to December 2022 shows malnutrition among expectant mothers contributed to 11% of all the diagnoses carried out in the different health centers in the district.
Sr. Grace Anena, the District Health Officer in charge of Maternal and Child Health, said that they screen for acute malnutrition during antenatal in all the health centers to track the prevalence of malnutrition among expectant mothers.
Although there is no treatment for malnutrition, Sr. Anena said they advise expectant mothers to eat food with the recommended nutrients and refer severe and critical cases to Lacor and Gulu Regional Referral Hospital for further management.
“Malnutrition among pregnant women and adolescents heightens the risk of maternal and neonatal newborn mortality death and illness morbidity,” Sr. Anena said.
A mother who preferred anonymity said she lost her child during birth early in 2022, because she wasn’t eating a balanced diet during pregnancy, and subsequently lost weight and was very weak.
She revealed that although she gave birth to another baby who is 4 months old now, he was born premature, still has low weight, and is stunted.
“I lacked breast milk, but the hospital gave me CSB++ that helped me produce milk for my baby who is gaining weight gradually,” she said.
Corn-Soya Blend (CBS) is a partially precooked fortified food used to supplement protein in the Supplementary Feeding Programs and Maternal and Child Health, consisting of maize, soya beans sugar, vitamins, and minerals and consumed as porridge.
CSB++ is a variant of CSB made of de-hulled soya beans, sugar, dried skim milk, refined soya bean oil, vitamins, and minerals. Also known as Super Cereal Plus, CSB++, is a complement to breastfeeding children aged between six and 24 months.
Love for money causing the problem
Justine Torach, the Gulu district Secretary for Health and Education revealed that malnutrition is also common among adults who eat inadequate diet and food value recommended by the health workers.
According to Torach, acute malnutrition is prevalent because many households sell all their produce, leaving nothing for food.
He advised the population to grow crops both for home consumption and sale.
Elvis Romanson Okello, the Gulu District biostatistician, said acute malnutrition is among the top ten causes of morbidity and is more common among women than men.
Karamoja, Lango, Acholi take lead
According to research carried out in 2015-2018 by Uganda National Institute of Public Health, 268,636 pregnant and lactating women had acute malnutrition. Karamoja had the highest prevalence at 21%, Lango 17% and Acholi 11%.
Karamoja and Lango were in the critical category, while Acholi was in the serious category of the WHO classification of acute malnutrition.
Williams Onyai, Gulu District Health Educator expressed concern over the increase of acute malnutrition, saying it used to affect only children.
Onyai explained that when acute malnutrition affects an expectant mother, it may adversely affect the development of the fetus, increasing the risk of low birth weight and infant mortality.
According to Onyai, a newborn should at least weigh 2.5kg.
“But if the mother has acute malnutrition, then the child will possibly be small and the mother may lose her life during pregnancy or after birth,” Onyai said.
According to Onyai, if a woman gets pregnant, the parents must go to the hospital before two or three months to get advice on the nutritional requirements of the expectant mother to avoid acute malnutrition.
“Malnutrition is simply a lack of proper nutrition, caused by not having enough to eat, not eating enough of the right things, or being unable to use the food that one does eat,” Onyai said.
A report by Unicef titled “Scaling up high impact of nutrition interventions” shows that more than half of Uganda’s 2.4 million children are stunted, and children under five and a quarter of women of childbearing age are anemic.
