Bauchi Govt commends Medecins Sans Frontieres for fighting malnutrition

By Samuel Luka, Bauchi

An emergency medical humanitarian organization known as ‘Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has been commended by the Bauchi state government for engaging in the fight against malnutrition in the state.

The Executive Chairman of the State Primary Health Care Development Agency (BSPHCDA), Dr. Rilwanu Muhammad gave the commendation while speaking at an event organized by the organization to brief newsmen on the situation of malnutrition in Bauchi on Thursday.

According to him, MSF is doing a good job in terms of treatment of malnurished children in Bauchi, adding that the state government is pleased with their activities.

He observed that, apart from treating malnourished children, the MSF is also involved in training the communities and health workers to identify five aspect of their work.

“It’s not only malnutrition, there is pneumonia, diarrhea and malaria. The communities are also involved, whenever a child is malnourished, whether it is mild or moderate, the situation would be managed, and they are doing it”, he said.

The organization which is also referred to as ‘Doctors Without Borders’ raised alarm over the increasing number of malnutrition cases in Bauchi state and how it is carrying out Community based solution to curb the menace.

While describing cases of malnutrition surge in Bauchi as overwhelming, MSF noted that it has deployed multiple responses that are
community-based solutions to curb the problem.

The MSF Project Coordinator in Bauchi state, Rabi Adamou while speaking, said unprecedented surge in admissions for malnutrition have been recorded in the state, noting that MSF has been rapidly scaling up the response in Bauchi to halt the surge.

She stressed that the organization is increasing bed capacity at the inpatient therapeutic feeding centre (ITFC) in Ganjuwa LGA to carer for the patients.

The Coordinator explained that Bauchi, along with the majority of northern Nigeria, is facing a malnutrition crisis. Across Nigeria, adding that MSF teams have seen rates of malnutrition admissions rise on average 40% from the same period last year.

“In Bauchi, 5,787 and 17,223 children were admitted in our ITFC and three local ambulatory therapeutic feeding centres (ATFCs), which support malnourished children before they need to be admitted to an in-patient hospital”, she said .

Rabi Adamou said between January-June 2024, the number of
admissions is 127% and 123% higher than during the same period in 2023 respectively.

The MSF which expressed worries by what it described as “catastrophic increase in malnutrition admissions” in
Bauchi in the first half of 2024, said there may be many factors compounding the increase in
admissions.

On her part, Nathalie Avril, Nutrition Advisor of the MSF said the organization has been supporting the local health system in Bauchi State since 2012 by responding to
outbreaks of diseases such as cholera, diphtheria, and Lassa fever.

She said, MSF has also assisted in the area of providing medical care,
training medical staff, and conducting health promotion activities amongst the community.

According to her, since 2022, MSF which is currently running a 250-bed capacity ITFC and an inpatient paediatric department (IPD) in Kafin Madaki
General Hospital has been responding to the huge number of children suffering from malnutrition.

“We also operate in three ATFCs in Kafin Madaki, Kafin Liman and Miya primary
healthcare centres.
In addition, new community-level activities are planned”, she disclosed.