The nutrition situation poses a huge challenge for Punjab in particular and Pakistan in general as the country aims to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. This was stated by Punjab Special Assistant to CM on Health Khawaja Salman Rafique while speaking at a one-day orientation workshop on ‘Nutrition Sentinel Site Surveillance at Punjab’.
The workshop was organised by the World Health Organisation (WHO), in collaboration with the Health Department at the Avari Hotel on Thursday.
Rafique said the levels of malnutrition are unacceptably high and will not only represent a challenge in reaching the Millennium Development Goals but will also constrain economic growth.
According to the National Nutrition Survey 2011, 58 percent of households are food insecure in Pakistan while 59.5 percent of these are in Punjab, said WHO Nutrition Technical Officer Dr Khizar Ashraf.
He said more than 29.7 percent of the children under five years of age, are underweight for their age. 43.7 percent of the children are affected by stunting and about 15.1 percent by wasting. 62.1 percent of children and 26.1 percent of pregnant women have anaemia in Pakistan.
Keeping in view the current situation, the WHO collaborated with the Health Department to form a pilot Nutrition Sentinel Site Surveillance System (NSSS) for children between the ages of 0-59 months.
He said the main objectives of the surveillance system was to continuously assess the nutritional and health status of the children in the selected sites, to identify and highlight the evolution and projected trends towards a nutritional and health emergency, as related to food crises and to allow sufficient time to appropriately respond to an impending crisis.
He said the Health and Nutrition Sentinel Site Surveillance System is built into the existing LHW Programme functioning at the district and provincial level, relying on state-of-the-art web-based system.
After the implementation of the system, the nutrition surveillance data will not only be digitally available at the district and provincial level but will also be analysed in real time and will be available for rapid response, planning and directing the resources.
While introducing surveillance system, Institution of Child Health Paediatric Department Head Dr Shakila Zaman revealed that chronic and acute malnutrition, parallel poverty and higher illiteracy, especially among mothers and the government’s lack of commitment towards ensuring food security are to blame.
She stated that besides these structural problems, the inherent problems of improper infant feeding practices, and inadequate access to the right foods, also exacerbated the problem. She stated that to curb the problem, essential steps were urgently required if Pakistan is to attain nationally optimal food security. She said health and nutrition have proven to be linked to overall educational attainment and thereby, to national progress.
Punjab Health Director General Dr Nisar Ahmad Cheema said the main target group for the surveillance will be children as they are more vulnerable to external shocks, including lack of food and disease and that their nutritional status is also more sensitive to external interventions. WHO Operations Officer Dr Babar Alam said the surveillance system will be established in seven districts of Punjab, including Multan, Gujranwala, Muzafargarh, DG Khan, Rajanpur, Layah and Bhakar.
He said the system will wave off the reliance of the province on national nutrition surveys which take place every five to ten years and that readily available data will be available every month at no extra cost.
Earlier, National Program-PHC Provincial Coordinator Dr Akhtar Rasheed, Health Services, Food and Nutrition Director Dr Mehmood Ahmed, WHO Punjab Nutrition Officer Dr Sadia Azam gave presentations on the state of nutrition in Punjab, the role of the national programme for primary healthcare and family planning in the nutrition surveillance and draft plan for sentinel sites in Punjab.
The workshop was attended by the Health EDOs, DOs, National Programme (PHC and FP) District coordinators and MNCH Programme public health specialists from Muzaffargarh, DG-Khan, Rajanpur, Layyah, Bhakkar, Multan and Gujranwala, UNICEF, WFP, and Micronutrient Initiative representatives.
