'Kwashiorkor rife in Matabeleland South'

MATABELELAND South is the province that is hardest hit by kwashiorkor due to the region's high starvation rate with health officials saying most families survive on one meal per day.The development puts the health of children under the age of five at risk.

World Health Organisation defines kwashiorkor as a nutritional disease in children aged six months to four years caused by defective breastfeeding from a sick and malnourished mother.

In most cases supplementary foods for these children suffering from kwashiorkor will be mainly meals made from maize.

Speaking during a media tour organised by the Ministry of Health and Child Care and the United Nations Population Fund, Gwanda district nursing officer Filter Sibanda said most toddlers relapsed after kwashiorkor treatment as families were failing to feed them properly.

"We've a challenge when it comes to kwashiorkor in this area. Our efforts to treat the disease are useless because starvation is prevalent in most families. We give supplements to the ailing children but when they go back home, they are subjected to one meal per day and unbalanced diet which makes them relapse," said Sibanda.

She bemoaned the prevalence of kwashiorkor in the province, saying though they were treating four patients at the time, the number was still too high.

"The prevalence rate is about 6-10 percent and though it might sound small, the figure is too high. We need urgent food aid in these communities because poverty is also high and there is no hope for people."

One of the mothers who were admitted to the hospital which is 70km from Gwanda Town said her family only survived on vegetables.

"This is my fourth child and he has kwashiorkor. My husband and I are not working and we only eat isitshwala and vegetables once a day," said Samu Dube, 41.

The provincial maternal and child medical officer Dr Rudo Chikodzore said starvation in Gwanda was hindering healthcare success and also fuelling teenage pregnancies.

"When children come with kwashiorkor we give them what we call F100, a type of medication high in protein since we know lack of protein in under-fives leads to kwashiorkor. Upon discharge we give them medication but sometimes when they get home, they may share the medication with other children in need of food and they end up relapsing," she said.

She said her department was relying on community health care workers to ensure affected children do not share the medication.

"We've been also recording a high number of teenage pregnancies due to poverty and starvation. Most of these teenagers fall pregnant as they are looking for food or money and in turn they risk their health because most maternal complications come with teenagers whose bodies are not biologically ready to bear babies," said Dr Chikodzore.

She said it was time relevant ministries teamed up to fight starvation, poverty, school dropouts, teenage pregnancies and unemployment so as to alleviate maternal mortality and kwashiorkor.

Recent reports also show that almost 3,000 pupils in primary and secondary schools in the province dropped out of school in 2013 mainly due to hunger as starvation in the drought-prone region reached alarming levels.

Matabeleland South is among the worst affected regions in the country due to poor harvests over the past five years and estimates indicate that the province would need over 630 metric tonnes of maize to avoid starvation.

A 2012 Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee Survey estimated 1.7 million people in Zimbabwe would require food hand-outs.