Читать книгу The Road to Good Nutrition - Группа авторов - Страница 111

When 7-month-old Frank arrived at the Rubaga Hospital in Uganda in 2010, he was severely malnourished. He weighed only 7.5 pounds. Frank’s aunt had less than $1 per week to feed and clothe him and his four other siblings. One of NuLife’s 1,200 volunteers referred Frank to the hospital. (There are 54 NuLife-supported health facilities. NuLife is managed by University Research Co., LLC (URC) in partnership with the Uganda Ministry of Health (MOH). They are tasked with engaging multiple stakeholders to ensure nutrition care for people living with HIV/AIDS, pregnant and lactating women, and orphans and vulnerable children.

Frank was diagnosed with severe acute malnutrition. Staff prescribed and provided Frank with ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) to treat his condition and enrolled him in an outpatient therapeutic care program. His aunt also received nutrition counseling.

Frank’s recovery was remarkable. After two months of RUTF he had exceeded his target weight by 20%. “Everybody gave Frank just two days to live when I first brought him, but now everybody wants to hold him and play with him,” his aunt said. Frank would need to be taken back to hospital for regular follow-ups and more RUTF to ensure continued recovery.

Frank is just one of 16,000 individuals that have received treatment via NuLife. Project-supported healthcare facilities now assess close to 85% of HIV-positive individuals for malnutrition at admission, and sustainable processes are now in place allowing facilities to continue to address malnutrition. These NuLife achievements allow Ugandan health facilities to continue to treat children like Frank even after the project’s completion in August 2011.

Source: Thousand Days Partnership, USA

http://www.thousanddays.org/success-story/malnutrition-is-treatable-access-to-nutrition-services-saves-the-life-of-a-ugandan-child/ Dec 2011 (abridged)