ISLAMABAD – Health experts Sunday said that over 44 percent children underfive years are stunted in Pakistan due to chronic malnutrition.According to them, stunted children suffer delayed growth and their brainsdo not develop as they should and asked the authorities concerned to startan awareness drivefor improving maternal and child health.They said that stunted children have seven month delay in starting schoolwhile they have low IQ and more likely to repeat a grade of school. Stuntedchildren complete one year less of schooling and less likely to graduatehigh school, they added.They urged to start an advocacy drive to address the issue of childrenstunting for having improved child health and nutrition.They said stunting is impaired growth and development caused by poornutrition, repeated infection and inadequate psychosocial stimulation.Dr Wasim Khawaja from PakistanInstitute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) said stunting is a result of chronicmalnutrition which is defined bythe World Health Organization as excesses or imbalances in aperson’s intake of energy or nutrients.He said stunting is the result of continued low intake of energy andessential nutrients. When children’s usual intake is below their requiredlevel, it resultsin impaired growth, and hence short stature for their age, he added.He said there are multiple reasons for a child to get in theunder-nutrition trap, and diarrhea is one of the major causes. Diarrhealeads to excessive loss of nutrients from body even though a child may haveconsumed sufficient quantity of calories or nutrients.Dr Sharif Astori from Federal Government Poly Clinic (FGPC) said when achild gets intestinal infection due to a bacteria or other micro-organism,he or she develops diarrhea.
These bugs attach themselves to the lining of the intestine,and interfere with the absorption of water andother essential nutrients.There are many reasons diarrhea may happen and most of the times, thebody’s natural protective mechanism helps recover the disease and overcomesthemicro-organisms, he added.He said Zinc is beneficial health effects for all ages and especially inchildren as it improves immune system’s capacity to fightinvading bacteria and viruses.Zinc improves growth and development in children during pregnancy, infancy,and childhood, headded.When contacted, an official from theMinistry of National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination said noonecan disagree that nutrition is one of the most important factors that needtoaddress in the first days of a child’s life as it is extremely critical totheir growth.”We are working to achieve zero stunting with better use of our healthcareworkers.
These are the people who are the closest to households and they develop arapport with and are trusted by the people in the community. Theintervention of health workers makes a significant impact in childhoodnutrition, especiallyin the child’s first three years.”He said that Prime Minister Imran Khan in his opening speech highlightedthe issue of stunting in Pakistan which shows high commitment of thepresent government towards addressing nutrition issues.His statement has been taken very positively by public health professionalswhile terming it as good initiative in an environment where health has notbeen the priority of the previous governments which is evident from ameager 2.9% of Gross Domestic Product spent on health in Pakistan in 2014,he added. – APP
