The International President of the Médecins Sans Frontières, also known as Doctors Without Borders, Dr. Christos Christou, has expressed concdern over the alarming inincrease in the number of malnourished children in northern Nigeria.
Christou, who said this on Friday at a press briefing in Abuja after he visited Maiduguri, noted that between January and August this year, there has been a 51 percent increase in admissions of children with severe malnutrition compared to the same period last year.
He said people in northern Nigeria have been through a lot with overwhelming levels of malnutrition, frequent outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases, and lack of medical facilities and medical personnel; compounded by continuous insecurity.
“During my visit to Maiduguri, I visited the hospitals and clinics where MSF works. We support the local healthcare system in tackling malaria and other diseases, as well as in providing access to maternity services.
“Recently, we had to launch a cholera treatment centre, after a cholera outbreak was officially declared. All this has happened in the background of a catastrophic malnutrition crisis.
“One of my colleagues, a Nigerian doctor who has been working with MSF for more than eight years, told me that this year is very different.
“Every year, he said, during this season, we see terrible numbers of malnourished children coming to the hospital in a severe condition. But this year, at a time when the peak is supposed to be over, the number of patients admitted to the hospital is not going down.
“Worse, the condition in which they arrive is even more severe than usual. Very often people don’t have access even to basic medical care where they live and do not have enough money or available transport. As a result, they reach to us too late.”
He stated that many organisations which were providing support in Maiduguri and other parts of the north of Nigeria have had to reduce their budgets or even stop their operations.
