“Muhimbili National Hospital paedetrician, Dr Edna Majaliwa, says that close to 40 children suffering from acute malnutrition are admitted annually at the hospital: -- About half of the number of the children admitted at our hospital with acute malnutrition die before treatment is completed, -- she says. Basic causes of malnutrition are related to political and socio-cultural factors where the former’s commitment is important to move the technical reality on what needs to be done to alleviate the problem.”
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“Tanzania Food and Nutrition Centre (TFNC) director for community health and nutrition, Dr Sabas Kimboka, says severe acute malnutrition (SAM) is rampant in Tanzania, noting that without proper plans and strategies the problem will continue to hit most people. He said they have come up with strategies to fight malnutrition through food fortification in flour and cooking oil. “Maize flour and cooking oil are among priority foods in fortification because it has been discovered that if nutrients are added in them it helps to fight malnutrition,” he said. He said they have directed millers to add 10 nutrients in food fortification, in flour and in cooking oil. He said this was because cooking oil produced from sunflower was lacking nutrients. Dr Kimboka mentioned four major forms of malnutrition as protein-energy malnutrition (PEM), anaemia and iodine deficiency disorders (IDD) and vitamin A deficiency (VAD), common among children.”
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