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MAURITANIA: Malnutrition has no season in Nouakchott
NNOUAKCHOTT, 4 November 2009 (IRIN) – At the health centre in Dar Naim, a working class neighbourhood of Nouakchott, the building for malnourished children is always full: in rural areas the seasons and crops affect malnutrition levels whereas in the capital this phenomenon remains constant throughout the year.
The most recent nutrition survey carried out in July by the Ministry of Health and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) using SMART methodology focused on assessing the nutritional situation for children between harvests.
The survey revealed that three regions of the country (southeast, south and centre) had the highest rates of global acute malnutrition (GAM). In central areas the rate was 19.2 percent, well above the World Health Organization’s emergency threshold of 15 percent.
In rural areas there tends to be various causes for malnutrition, notes Mohamed Moustapha Kane, head of the Health Ministry nutrition service.
General poverty levels in the country – more than 46 percent of the population live below the poverty threshold, according to the UN – and the lean season both contribute to malnutrition, but in addition in rural areas, although they are “agropastoral regions, not everyone has [cattle or land]. People also lack knowledge.of [good nutritional practices]. Isolation and lack of infrastructure are also an issue: access to health, drinking water or [hygiene]“.
According to the July 2009 study the GAM rate in Nouakchott (7.9 percent) is much lower than in other areas. However the difference is that in the capital, as opposed to in rural areas, the seasons have little influence on the phenomenon: the December 2008 SMART study during a post-harvest period showed a 5.9-percent rate in Nouakchott compared to 11.9 percent in the central region.
Many observers have noted that the time of year does not affect food availability in urban areas. According to Nené Koné, who has been in charge of child nutrition at the Dar Naim health centre since 1991, in large part a lack of money perpetuates the problem in Nouakchott.
When mothers arrive at the centre with their children, “the main issue that comes across is their extreme poverty,” Koné told IRIN. “If the mother is hungry because she has not been able to eat, then she has no milk [to breastfeed]“.
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