Gov. El-Rufai Orders Medicine For Malnourished Children

Kaduna State governor, Malam Nasir el-Rufai

Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai has ordered the supply of more Ready to Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) for the treatment of malnourished children in the state.

The Project Manager, Kaduna State Emergency Nutrition Action Plan, Shehu Makarfi, who disclosed this in an interview on the overview of the project in Zaria, Kaduna State, said the state government had directed local governments to give coordinators of the programme N500,000 monthly for the activity but lamented that the fund was not utilised judiciously.

Mr. Makarfi said, “The order for additional supply of RUTF was due to fear of shortage of the drug, which was likely to affect the intervention given by the state government.”

“We called a meeting with health and nutrition officers in local government areas and her excellency, the wife of the governor, has read the riot act to them and anyone caught tampering with the N500,000 will be held responsible.”

He noted that 12 to 14 sachets of RUTF and other supporting medicines can help a severely malnourished child within eight weeks of treatment to recover.

He added that some local governments needed to set up relevant structures in their Primary Healthcare Centres before the agency could intervene in their areas.