Health and family welfare department in Andhra Pradesh is planning to establish 30 Nutritional Rehabilitation Centres (NRCs) in the state. The main objective behind this new initiative of the state government is to provide medical care to poor children suffering from Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) and prevent child mortality rate.

Though Andhra Pradesh had a very good overall economic growth during the past one decade, the government had failed to stop the prevalence of SAM in children. Every year thousands of children are dying due to malnourishment. In fact children with severe acute malnutrition have nine times higher risk of dying than well-nourished children. The national Family Health Survey-3 had revealed that about 6.4 per cent of all children below five years of age are severely affected in the state.

The tribal areas are some of the worst affected parts in the state. A large number of SAM cases have been registered in the tribal regions. In view of this, the state government had decided to set up 30 NRCs, out of which 23 NRCs are planned with a capacity of 20 beds in the government hospitals of each district and seven NRCs with a bed capacity of 10 are planned in the severely affected remote tribal areas of Paderu, Visakhapatnam, Rampachowdavaram, East Godavari, Bhadrachalam, Khammam, Utnoor, Adilabad in the state.

The staff nurses and doctors working in NRC centres will be trained in the management of SAM according to the WHO training protocol. Gandhi Hospital, Secunderabad has been identified as the nodal center for capacity building, and monitoring of the NRCs in the state. ANMs and AWWs are appointed to record the weights of the babies on health and nutrition. Regular monitoring is done to identify the malnourished children. These malnourished children must be examined by MOs and then referred to NRCs and in respect of all such cases the follow up action should be taken. The field staff who reports the SAM cases to NRCs may be rewarded an amount of Rs.50/- per each case.

“A budget of Rs.230 lakhs has been released by the government to APMSIDC for renovation of NRCs and procurement of equipment. So far, 4 pediatricians have undergone TOT and 16 medical officers have been trained for this purpose,” said Praveen Prakash, commissioner, health and family welfare.

Childhood under nutrition is an important public health and development challenge in India. Undernourished children have significantly higher risk of mortality and morbidity. Besides increasing the risk of death and disease, under nutrition also leads to growth retardation and impaired psychosocial and cognitive development. With appropriate nutritional and clinical management, many of the deaths can be prevented, stated the commissioner.