BANGUED, Abra (PIA) — The Department of Health (DOH), in partnership with the Provincial Health Office (PHO), continues to enhance the technical skills and capabilities of midwives under the Human Resource for Health (HRH) Program.
The recently held orientation on Child Growth Standards and Management of Severe Acute Malnutrition retooled the midwives on assessing child growth by weight, length or height and aligning these data to growth standards to be able to provide proper health and development interventions for the children.
The activity attended by over 80 HRH midwives in Abra was conducted through multiple training modules and demonstrations.
DOH Nutrition Dietician II Jenelyn Leano emphasized that identifying acute malnutrition at the early stage of growth is crucial to child’s overall health in the future.
“Isu nga i-train tayo dagitoy HRH midwives tayo, as our health workers in the barangay, tapnu ma-identify da ti acute malnutrition whether it’s severe acute malnutrition(SAM) or moderate acute malnutrition. This also serves as refresher course for them,” she said.
Provincial Health Office Nutritionist Glenda Benedito presented response-actions to acute malnutrition which include an appetite test to determine which health interventions are needed for the child.
“After identifying, i-perform tayo diay appetite test tapnu makita tayo nu Outpatient Therapeutic Care (OTC) or Inpatient Therapeutic Care (ITC) ti pakay-enrol’an na diay ubing,” she said.
ITC is the management of complicated cases of severe acute malnutrition while OTC is the management of non-complicated cases of SAM. (JDP/CAGT-PIA CAR, Abra)
