Despite the huge availability of vitamin-enriched and energy-boosting food supplements known as ready-to-use therapeutic food specially designed to address acute malnutrition, many children suffering from the case don’t have access to it. This is against the backdrop of brazen illegal diversion and trading of the supplement; a trend that poses health burdens in the North, Daily Trust on Sunday reports.
Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF), also known as plumpy nut, is an energy-boosting supplement and vitamin-enriched food that requires no preparation. It is specifically designed to treat acute malnutrition.
It is prepared, procured, and distributed to those who need it, mainly by multinational organizations, such as the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Doctors Without Borders, or Medicine Sans Frontiers (MSF) in French, national, and state governments, as well as local non-governmental organizations.
But despite increased procurement volumes of the medicinal food supplement, many children suffering from severe malnutrition still don’t have access to it.
It is, however, seen on display for sale in some markets, on the streets, and even hawked from house to house in Katsina, Kano, and Jigawa states.
Read More: https://dailytrust.com/malnutrition-how-diversion-of-supplement-poses-health-burden-in-north
