By SADIQ ABUBAKAR, Maiduguri –
A new centre to treat children with complicated forms of malnutrition has been opened by international medical organisation Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in south Maiduguri, Borno State.
A statement issued Monday by the MSF Communication Officer, North East, Abdulkareem Yakubu and made available to newsmen in Maiduguri added that the name Nilefa Keji (which means ‘health is wealth’) and the new 120-bed centre, which will provide both inpatient and outpatient treatment, is an upgraded version of MSF’s previous malnutrition centre at Fori primary health centre.
“The move from Fori to Nilefa Keji became necessary because we were seeing a lot of malnourished children in our facility,” says MSF assistant project coordinator Mohammed Dikko Abdullahi.
“Fori nutrition centre had limited space for expansion and we needed to accommodate more people.”
The new facility, in Maiduguri’s Kusheri neighbourhood, has four emergency beds, 14 intensive care beds and two beds for children with kwashiorkor, a severe form of malnutrition (which causes the legs and body to swell).
The statement added that the MSF teams would provide inpatient treatment for children with severe acute malnutrition and with moderate acute malnutrition accompanied by medical complications. The new centre also has an outpatient therapeutic feeding centre with space to accommodate more than 150 children and parents each day.
“The medical team has seen increasing numbers of patients with malnutrition over the past couple of months and, looking at the trends at our hospital and recent reports on food security, we expect an increased number of patients in the coming months,” says Rodel Lambatin, MSF project medical advisor.
It further explained that for the new centre, MSF has recruited and trained additional Nigerian nurses, doctors, nutrition assistants and counsellors from January to June 2021, while MSF staff at Fori nutrition centre treated 1,110 children for severe acute malnutrition as inpatients and provided outpatient care to 1,122 children with moderate acute malnutrition.
According to the statement, the new centre at Nilefa Keji was completed over five months and includes improved infection prevention and control measures. It also has a rainwater channel, designed to prevent flooding and avoid the accumulation of standing water, which can attract insects and present a health risk.
“With the new site, we have more land for any needed extensions and we have more room for staff,” says MSF construction manager Jordan Gartner. “We will be able to handle more patients, especially during the peak malnutrition season”, the statement added.