30 nutrition rehab centres to come up by July

HYDERABAD: Thirty Nutrition Rehabilitation Centres, proposed  under the National Rural Health Mission, will come up in the state by the end of July.Of those, 23 will be set up at the district headquarters and seven in tribal areas.After months of discussions, the health and family welfare department has got a nod and a fund of Rs 2.3 crore recently from the government to set up the centres for eradication of malnutrition in the state, according to Dr Govardhan Reddy, joint director (maternal health & nutrition) of health and family welfare.“We are in the process of identifying places on the premises of district government hospitals in 23 districts and nine Integrated Tribal Development Agency areas, and making arrangements for creating infrastructure and staff for the proposed NRCs. The department has already identified some places and appointed a few members of staff. Every NRC will have adequate infrastructure including 15 to 20 beds for malnutrition patients,’’ he says.The state government, under NRHM, will provide the funding and facilities, staff and technical support for the difficult task of treating patients with severe acute malnutrition. A budget of Rs 2.3 crore has been released for initial arrangements. “If everything goes according to the plan, all the NRCs will be functioning by the end of July.”  Every NRC will have one pediatrician, two nurses, two caretakers, a cook, and a feeding demonstrator. The NRCs cater not only to the medical needs of acute patients, mostly under the age of 5, but also work closely with the mothers to address the root causes of malnutrition in their children. They will offer round-the-clock care to children suffering from the worst forms of malnutrition.  They will provide serious patients with treatment consisting of regular feeding with micronutrient-rich food and required antibiotics, and treatment of underlying illnesses,  Govardhan Reddy says.The staff will offer mothers individual and group counselling and training on important nutritional aspects such as breastfeeding, supplementary feeding, local recipes, sanitation and hygiene, and other topics the women want to learn.Cases of acute malnutrition are treated with two types of therapeutic food depending on the severity and complications of their condition.