The role of WHO to establish Stabilization Centre in Children Hospital, to control severe malnutrition situation, is appreciable said Prof Dr Faisal Tahir, Dean Children Hospital. He was addressing a concluding session of a 4-Day training workshop on “Impatient Management of Severe Acute Malnutrition with Medical Complications”. The training was jointly arranged with WHO, UNICEF and department of Health, Punjab. The session was chaired by Tahir, while WHO Punjab Operations Officer Dr Babar Alam, UNICEF Representative Dr Uzma, Dr Sadia Azam, WHO Nutrition Officer Punjab and Prof Dr Shakila Zaman, were also present.
Alam said that seven SC in Punjab and two SC in Lahore are already functional. The third and newly established, Stabilization Center would start working from 1st April. To get the best out of it, WHO also arranged 4 days training workshop, where seven facilitators trained 24 doctors, nurses and other staff members on Community Mobilization, supplementary feeding, out patients therapeutic program and functioning of SC’s essential components of care.
While speaking at the last session of the workshop Zaman said that nutrition is extremely important but the situation is alarming in Pakistan. She said that according to National Nutrition Survey of 2011, among Pakistani children under the age of five, 43.6% are stunted, 15.1% are wasted and 31.5% are underweight. Children are suffering from severe malnutrition as 32.7%, 30.3% and 40 % are suffering from Iron, Vitamin A and Zinc deficiency respectively and 62.5% children are anaemic. She believed that newly created SC would help Children Hospital to handle severe malnutrition cases of mother and child in a better way. She said this was just the beginning, and that we had a long way to go with WHO, to overcome nutrition based health issues.
Would have been great if the reporter could have gotten the training name correct! Its inpatient not impatient!
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