Quarter of Karas children malnourished

THE Karas Region, especially the Keetmanshoop health district, is plagued by high rate of child malnutrition.

It is estimated that 25 per cent of children under the age of five are suffering from chronic malnutrition, and this resulted in three deaths last year. This was revealed by primary healthcare supervisor Rauna Namukwambi in an interview with The Namibian.’We go to that extent of children being admitted to hospitals for treatment because of malnutrition, but when they go back home after showing improvement, the balanced diet is lacking,’ Namukwambi said.Namukwambi said the regional health authority is running a growth monitoring programme focusing on underweight children in an effort to get the malnutrition rate below five per cent. She called on mothers to take children to a hospital or clinic once a month to be weighed.Namukwambi said malnourished children’s parents are referred to the Karas Regional Council (KRC) to benefit from drought-relief programmes or to participate in the food-for-work or cash-for- work projects. ‘We’re doing this to enable them to have food on their table,’ she said Namukwambi also expressed concern about patients defaulting on their TB and ARV treatments, saying failure to take medicine as prescribed can worsen their condition.’Take your treatments until a health official requests you to stop,’ she urged the patients.