Malnutrition is Destroying Panama
by Rolando Rodríguez B.
Chronic malnutrition has affected and continues to affect one quarter of school-age Panamanian children 6 to 9 years old, according to statistical data, while some 35,000 mothers from around the country suffer a degree of malnutrition, a number which represents one half the Panamanian women who give birth each year.
One out of four children suffers from some degree of malnutrition. A fourth of the population of the coming generation will not enjoy the same job opportunities, schooling, social or family life as the present one. The prospects for this population will be limited by irreversible brain damage due to childhood nutritional deficiencies.
These limitations are already evident in school failures, drop-outs, poverty and in many cases, delinquency.
Poverty is, in essence, the source of malnutrition. It is no coincidence that the regions most affected by infant malnutrition in Panamaare also the ones which have the lowest annual family incomes. Eastern Chiriquí, a large part of Veraguas province, almost all of the San Blas Islands, as well as the districts of Bocas del Toro, have infant populations with chronic malnutrition. Even though at the national level the average monthly income for a family is $244, in these places monthly salaries only range from $62 to $81. In most cases these households have dirt floors, lack sanitary services, and only a few have drinking water.
The great majority of those affected are indigenous families whose incomes are only a fourth of the average Panamanian salary. They live in harsh regions with few possibilities for working the land (which is generally of bad quality), far from urban centers and lacking basic health and education services. When the chances for survival become critical they then decide to emigrate to the capital.
Samuel Turgman, president of the National Nutrition Service Association, says that pre-school age children, from birth to three years of age, who suffer from severe malnutrition, will have a deficit of brain cells on the order of 20%, which means that their ability to learn will be severely limited. This, unsurprisingly, reinforces economic and social inequality.
Short of some solution to the problem, Panama will have several generations of citizens who suffer from malnutrition and who reach adulthood with an unequal set of opportunities. Turgman adds that a sort of lottery takes place: some live a very hard and bad life and become a light social burden. But others, observes Turgman, “can fall easily into drug addiction and later into delinquency.” These people are “essentially vulnerable to these two evils,” he states.
Turgman indicated that the government has begun to develop programs directed at combating malnutrition in Panama. Last year the Legislative Assembly approved a law to give elementary school students a daily glass of milk with a nutritional cookie. Thanks to this law every child in public school and pre-school will have eight ounces of fresh milk daily and a cookie, which together will give these children 10 grams of protein and approximately 600 calories. This, according to Turgman, is providing 25% of their daily required basic nutrition.
Turgman believes that there is a need for additional efforts in the area of prevention.
Source: La Prensa, 12/10/95.
