“I am five months pregnant and I can say that sometimes I have a hard time eating a balanced diet. As local food prices have skyrocketed recently, I cannot think of adding fruits and vegetables to my diet,” said Ashia Yusuf, 34, from Lagos. VaccinesStudy.
To tackle the risk of anemia in pregnant women and children under five, Nelson called for the introduction of Multi-Micronutrient Supplement (MMS), a small pill containing 15 vitamins and minerals.
The latest report by the Nigerian National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has revealed that food inflation in the country increased from 37.92% recorded in February 2024 to 40.01% in March 2024. According to NBS, the annual increase in food inflation was due to the increase in prices of products such as garri, millet, bread, potato tuber, dried fish, sardines, palm oil, vegetable oil, beef, coconut, watermelon and others.
In January 2024, NBS showed that the average price of 1 kg of local rice was 1,021.79 naira (about US$0.75), which was almost double the price of 514.83 naira (about US$0.37) in January 2023. During the same period, the price of boneless beef increased by 37%, while the price of brown beans increased by 64%. Meanwhile, the World Bank reports that an estimated 87 million Nigerians (almost 40%) live below the poverty line.
Ashiya Yusuf is one of them. “The nurses at Ifako General Hospital in Lagos, Nigeria, always advise me to eat a balanced diet and include fruits and vegetables in my diet to provide my body with the nutrients it needs for both myself and my unborn child. However, due to the current state of the economy, my family and I are now “I can’t afford these as we have difficulty eating twice,” he said.
Risk of anemia
Dr. is a physician and consultant for Vitamin Angels, a public health non-profit in Nigeria. Francis Ohanyido explained that pregnancy significantly increases the calories and micronutrients required by a woman’s body.
Ohanyido fears that rates of anemia and other diseases linked to deficiencies among pregnant women could rise due to food inflation, as women like Yusuf have difficulty accessing important sources of micronutrients such as vitamins A, C, D, E, B1 (thiamine). B2 (riboflavin), B3 (niacin), B6, B12 and folic acid, as well as minerals such as iron, zinc, iodine, copper and selenium.
Chito Nelson, immediate past chief of the Food and Nutrition Division of the Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, confirmed at the Multiple Micronutrient Supplementation (MMS) event organized by Civil Society Scale in February that malnutrition can lead to anemia in mothers. Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN) in Abuja.
Anemia can cause increased morbidity and fetal mortality, as well as premature birth, intrauterine growth restriction, congenital malformations and decreased immune competence, Nelson said.
Meanwhile, pregnant women may also experience breathing difficulties, fainting, fatigue, palpitations and sleep difficulties, and are at high risk of developing perinatal infection, preeclampsia, complications during birth and even death and postpartum cognitive impairment.
MMS, a recovery pill
To tackle the risk of anemia in pregnant women and children under five, Nelson called for the introduction of Multi-Micronutrient Supplement (MMS), a small pill containing 15 vitamins and minerals. “MMS has 20 years of research [behind it]It provides clear evidence that it is safe and more effective than IFAs in preventing adverse birth outcomes,” Nelson said.
IFAs refer to Iron and Folic Acid supplements given as standard to pregnant women in Nigeria. However, Nelson notes that the 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) found that 58 percent of women of reproductive age and 68 percent of children under five are anemic, pointing to the shortcomings of this approach.
To remedy this situation, the Nigerian government approved MMS in January 2021 as a safe and cost-effective way to meet women’s micronutrient requirements during pregnancy. The Federal Ministry of Health has approved the nationwide roll-out of MMS in its updated National Guidelines on the Prevention and Control of Micronutrient Deficiencies in Nigeria.
Nutrition and immunity
Nutritional deficiencies can pose a variety of health risks, including leaving the body more vulnerable to infectious diseases. In fact, malnutrition contributes to an estimated 45% of deaths among children under five in low-income countries, and most of these deaths occur due to disease.
In places where malnutrition is common, the same disease can cause much higher rates of damage than it would elsewhere. Measles, for example, is expected to kill 1 in 1,000 unvaccinated but otherwise healthy children. However, it was noted that the death rate due to the virus in poor environments was 15%.
This means that providing both vaccines and nutritional supplements is especially important when economic conditions become difficult. A review article published last year by Gavi and the Eleanor Crook Foundation explored the potential for delivering both life-saving interventions in an integrated manner.
Read the article
Switching cost
Yadika Charles, UNICEF chief nutrition officer, said seven states in Nigeria have adopted these national-level guidelines and have committed to transitioning from IFAS to MMS. VaccinesStudy.
“Plateau, Kwara, Katsina, Jigawa, Gombe, Adamawa and Borno states have committed to roll out MMS. “Six hundred million naira has been released by the four states under the Match Child Nutrition Fund,” he said.
Charles said it would cost Nigeria US$26.5 million to procure enough MMS to effectively eliminate anemia in pregnant women and children under five. “Realistically, we have targeted 60 percent of pregnant women in Nigeria to have access to MMS within three years.”
In any case, this transition may come too late for Ashia Yusuf, speaking in Lagos. VaccinesStudy He said he had never heard of MMS yet. “It would be great if the Lagos state government would consider switching to MMS,” he said, engrossed in the new topic. “Most pregnant women [I know] “They also have difficulty eating healthy.”