By Salisu Maradun

Gusau—OVER 34,000 cases of child malnutrition were recorded last year in six out of the 14 local government areas in Zamfara State, the state Nutrition Officer, Alhaji Samaila Bakwai, has said.

A baby is atended to in an effort to stabilize him after he was admitted to a local hospital suffering from acute malnutrition The rising number of cases of acute watery diarrhea in crowded urban areas places malnourished children at grave threat from cholera, which is a deadly and contagious disease,” UNICEF spokeswoman Marixie Mercado said. AFP PHOTO

Bakwai, in a paper he presented during a five-day workshop sponsored by the United Nations International Children Endowment Fund, UNICEF, in Gusau, in collaboration with the state Primary Health Care Board, blamed the high figure on poor feeding and lack of nutritional diet.

According to him, lack of attention to the issue was one of the big holdups, lamenting that out of the N100 million budgeted for nutrition last year, only N5 million was released.