Friday, July 13, 2007 Tomas to share notes with Mandaue, scores high rate in Cebu province
TO address Cebu City’s malnutrition problem, Mayor Tomas Osmeña will compare notes with Mandaue City officials to learn from their “very strong nutrition program.”
Although malnutrition rate in Cebu City is at seven percent, Osmeña noted that the prevalence rate in the province is much higher.
“It’s worse in the Province. It’s seven percent in the city and in the province it’s 11 percent. Cebu Province even has more malnourished children than Siquijor but they still prefer to build the CICC. Maybe they can eat the CICC,” the mayor told a news conference yesterday.
He said, though, that the City will pay attention to its own problem and will try to learn from Mandaue City, which he said has been addressing well the malnutrition problem.
A study by the Department of Health and the National Nutrition Research Institute of the Department of Science and Technology showed that only 3.15 percent of Mandaue City’s pre-school children are malnourished.
The study, which was conducted at the local level, showed the prevalence of malnutrition among pre-school kids who were individually weighed, National Nutrition Council regional coordinator Letlet Mission said in a phone interview.
In Cebu City, Barangay Ermita was recorded to have the highest number of malnourished pre-school children at 28.23 percent, or 354 of the 1,254 children weighed.
Included in the top five barangays are Pahina San Nicolas (23.31 percent), T. Padilla (20.28 percent), Buhisan (19.11 percent) and Kalunasan (17.53 percent).
In Central Visayas, Oriental Negros has the highest prevalence rate with 12.71 percent, followed by Cebu with 11.82 percent, Siquijor with 11.8 percent and Bohol with 11.06 percent.
Cebu City ranked fourth among the 12 cities in the province with 7.87 percent. Bais City ranked first with 14.73 percent. (LCR)
