Johannesburg - Gauteng may be known as South Africa’s richest province but it lost 113 children to malnutrition in a year.
The children, aged five years and younger, died between April last year and March, Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu revealed in Orange Farm on Friday when she presented the 2015/ 2016 annual report to the health portfolio committee.
She said about 3 040 new cases of severe acute malnutrition had been identified, and of those, about 1 510 children had been admitted to hospital.
However, 113 of the children were so severely malnourished that they died.
The department’s spokesperson, Steve Mabona, said poverty was at the centre of the matter, and they were doing all they could to save lives.
He said cases had been identified at clinics when parents took their children for immunisations. Others, however, were caught when the damage was done.
“It's imperative to note that once malnutrition is at an acute stage, there is high mortality. It's extremely important to detect it at earlier stages. We have a mountain (with regard to dealing with the problem) but we are working closely with municipalities and clinics. We will also train community health workers to identify malnourished children,” he said.
DA health spokesperson Jack Bloom said it was incomprehensible that some children were dying of hunger while there were welfare agencies, government departments and food banks.
The government should ensure that no one died of starvation, and the question was why it wasn't detected, he said.
“Are the neighbours not reporting it when they see a skeletal child or the parents are not taking their children to clinics?
“This problem is multifaceted. In order to tackle it we need to find out where it is happening, but it is likely in the informal settlements.
“Community healthcare workers are important because they have an area where they visit and deliver medicine to people,” Bloom said.
Mabona said the department was training doctors and nurses to correctly classify severe malnutrition for early diagnosis and immediate treatment.
He added that the department provided standard menus to all crèches and that it was finalising plans to implement a community-based nutrition programme.
The Star