NEWS- Medics at Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital are struggling to handle the increasing number of malnourished children.
The number of children received at the facility has increased from an average of 15 per month to 30. This has seen the facility struggling to raise money to feed the children.
According to the Hospital Ag. Director Dr. Deus Twesigye, the cases mainly from the districts of Isingiro, Mbarara and Buhweju continue to worry them. He says that treating malnourished children is expensive; adding that some of the therapeutic Milk is provided by UNICEF saves children who come out of severe forms of malnutrition to healthy children.
Twesigye says that the ward where the children are admitted is congested since some children spend up to three weeks at the facility as they support them to stabilize.
Twesigye says that the hospital has now embarked on a program to discuss with leaders in the district to sensitize locals on the need to prioritize the feeding of children on the right food and in the right quantities.
Cue in…………….Twesigye on children
Dr. Dalton Babukiika the senior hospital nutritionist says when the chidden are malnourished almost all the organs in the body is affected the therapeutic Milk helps the affected children recover faster and mothers to the patients are trained on how to mix the therapeutic Milk.                                                                                            Â
Cue in………………Babukiika on feeding
UNICEF Specialist Communications officer Catherine Ntabadde says despite the existence of a variety of food in southwestern Uganda most of the parents don’t know how to mix the foods to improve the immunity in children’s bodies.
Cue in……………Ntabadde on hospital
