Antique’s malnutrition rate down by .2 percent

San Jose, Antique (26 August) — The Antique Provincial Health Office (PHO) reported a decrease in the rate of malnutrition in the province by .2 percent from 14.49 percent in 2008 to 14.29 percent this year.

The statistics show that in 2008 there are 11,062 children aged 0-71 months with Below Normal Very Low (BNVL) and Below Normal Low (BNL) weight categories and it decreased to 10,940 with 122 children now in the normal weight category.

The Provincial Health Office covered 590 barangays in the province with a coverage of 82.9 percent or 76,576 children weighted out of 92,331 target.

Children with the normal weight also increased from 64,738 in 2008 to 65,122 this year.

Top 5 municipalities with high incidence of malnutrition are; Tobias Fornier with 22.93 %, Caluya with 21.88% then Tibiao – 19.36 %, Sibalom – 18.18% and Hamtic – 17.86 %.

The town of Belison has the lowest incidence of malnutrition with 9.09 %, followed by San Jose with 9.37% then San Remigio with 10.11%.

The report of the (PHO) was based on Operation Timbang conducted for the first quarter of this year.

Health authorities encouraged local government units, parents, school officials and other stakeholders to converged program and services to eradicate malnutrition and keep up with the commitment stated in the Millennium Development Goals of eradicating poverty and malnutrition especially among children. (PSM/PIA)