Katsina State government has commissioned an 80-bed capacity centre for the treatment of patients with cases associated with severe acute malnutrition in the state.
The executive secretary, State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr Shamsudeen Yahaya, disclosed this while speaking at the occasion marking world breastfeeding week in Mashi local government area of Katsina State.
“We also successfully supplemented more than a 1.7million children with VitA, and also dewormed children 1-5 years of age,” he said, adding, “We are just about to conclude a smart survey assessing the nutritional status of children.”
Yahaya who was represented by the director of the agency, Dr Naffisa Sani, appreciated the United Nations Intervention Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF), the Mashi local government and the wife of Governor Aminu Bello Masari for observing the week, assuring to continue to work forward to improving the health status of all people in the state.
The wife of the governor, Hajiya Zakiyya Aminu Masari, enjoined mothers to buy into the initiative of breastfeeding their babies as soon as possible after birth, “within the first hour after delivery and should receive practical support to enable them to initiate and establish breastfeeding.”
He acknowledged that breastfeeding is not only important to the child but also important to the mother, her family and society at large. As she called on community leaders and government sectors to include women in system transformations to ensure breastfeeding-friendly communities and workplaces respectively.
