Malnutrition hits South
Up to 16 per cent of Narathiwat children under the age of six suffered from malnutrition during the past year, Public Health Ministry permanent secretary Dr Prat Boonyawongvirot said yesterday.
Prat said the ongoing violence in the deep South had hindered his ministry's effort to prevent diseases and promote good health among local people there. He said the ratio of ill people in Narathiwat who received treatment until they had made a full recovery dropped behind the ministry's target of 80 per cent. Three women also died in childbirth, a factor that would adversely affect the babies' development, he said. Prat was speaking as he and other public health officials visited a village in Narathiwat where two royally initiated projects have been implemented. The village has a population of 577, all of them Muslims. During the past four months, 13 children aged younger than six - or 22 per cent of the children in the village - were malnourished.
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