Stakeholders Warn Health Workers On Dangers Of Breast-milk Substitutes

A global nutrition initiative, Alive & Thrive (A&T), and the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), on Wednesday, trained health workers in Kaduna State on the dangers of Breast-milk Substitute (BMS).

The Zonal Coordinator of the organisation, Mrs. Sarah Kwasu, said in Zaria that the training was under the A&T Maternal, Infant and Young Child Nutrition (MIYCN) in Nigeria programme.

Kwasu said that the training was organised by the State Primary Health Care Board as part of efforts to promote optimal breastfeeding practices. She explained that the World Health Organisation recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months towards reducing infant morbidity and mortality, especially in developing countries. She added that to achieve this, the World Health Assembly in 1981, adopted the Code of Marketing of BMS to discourage the promotion of substitutes globally and ensure full adoption of exclusive breastfeeding. She attributed the current low MICYN practices in the country to the continued violation of the International Code of BMS by producers and marketers of breast-milk substitutes.

She said that the A&T initiative was being funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to save lives, prevent illness, and improve the health and wellbeing of mothers, children, and adolescents. This, she said, is being achieved using evidence-based approaches in collaboration with governments and other partners at global, regional, national, and community levels. She pointed out that as a regulatory agency, NAFDAC was specifically assigned the responsibility of implementation, enforcement, and monitoring of adherence to the Code. She said that NAFDAC had been conducting an awareness campaign to ensure compliance with the International Code of Marketing of BMS to improve knowledge, practice, and attitude towards exclusive breastfeeding. She said that A&T had earlier supported NAFDAC to sensitise health workers from 16 health facilities in four selected LGAs namely Kaduna North, Kaduna South, Chikun, and Igabi.

The Zonal Coordinator described the sensitisation as a “huge success” following the step down of the training to a total of 672 health workers. According to her, the current training was to support NAFDAC and the State Primary Health Care Board to scale up the training to other LGAs.

The State Nutrition Officer, Mrs Ramatu Haruna, said the training was designed to improve the health workers’ knowledge of their role in protecting pregnant women, mothers, and their infants from inappropriate use of BMS. Haruna added that the training was also to re-orient the health workers on the importance of promoting early initiation of breast-milk and six months of exclusive breastfeeding in health facilities.

Mrs Rahila Maishanu, BMS Officer, NAFDAC, Kaduna State Office, said that healthcare workers have a duty to control the introduction, use and movement of BMS in health facilities.

Maishanu called on the health workers to support, protect and promote breastfeeding towards building a healthy and productive population for the development of society.