A written Parliamentary response to the DA by Health Minister, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, revealed that 1457 children under the age of five died from acute malnutrition in the past two years in South Africa.
The majority of child mortality was due to severe acute malnutrition (SAM).
KwaZulu-Natal accounted for 265 child-deaths, followed by Limpopo with 230, the Eastern Cape has 190 deaths, and Gauteng with 172.
Motsoaledi said the data was extracted from the District Health Information System, and recorded from January 2023 to November 2024.
Pneumonia was revealed as another common cause of child mortality, with 1442 deaths of children under the age of five.
KZN ranked the highest with 341 deaths, Gauteng accounted for 263, followed by the Eastern Cape (215) and Limpopo with 198 deaths.
DA spokesperson on health and MP, Michele Clarke, said a question by the party revealed that 12 582 children died from SAM and moderate acute malnutrition (MAM) since 2013.
Cases related to SAM rose by 26% between 2018/19 and 2022/23.
“In 2022, 2.4 per 1 000 children under the age of five were diagnosed with SAM, which is approximately 13 668 children that year with a population of about 5 695 000 children under four years,” said Clarke.
She further sounded alarm on the surge of malnutrition because at least one in four children in the country are stunted.
“And in 2020, 10% of children in South Africa lived in households that reported child hunger,” said Clarke.
Clarke emphasised that there is an urgent need for the Health Department to address severe hunger among children.
According to Motsoaledi, his ministry has taken necessary measures to reduce child mortality rates caused by malnutrition, pneumonia and other diseases.
The department is currently developing enough capacity of clinicians who will work to prevent and manage childhood illnesses with the use of face-to-face and online training methodologies.
“For pneumonia and gastroenteritis we are the first country on the continent to introduce a pneumococcal vaccine, and vaccine to stop enteritis among children respectively.
“Other childhood vaccines like measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria have dramatically reduced the incidences of such illnesses,” said Motsoaledi.
The minister mentioned that the department has noted several achievements in preventing illnesses that cause a surge in child mortality.
He explained that government has placed in structures, where ministerial committees advise him on steps required to reduce mortality and morbidity amongst mothers, newborns and children.
The department has “Integrated School Health Programme jointly implemented by three departments”.
It also joined forces with other ministries around Early Childhood Development.
Despite the mortality rate hitting a decline, numbers remained high in upper middle-income countries. Newborn mortality and stillbirth rates showed little decline in particular.
“Improvements in children’s health and well-being is dependent on addressing the social determinants of health as children are extremely vulnerable to socio-economic stress, with the increased cost of food likely to result in increased malnutrition and associated mortality,” said Motsoaledi.
Clarke cautioned that the health department should formulate interventions that would prevent future deaths caused by severe hunger.
“It is clear that urgent intervention is needed and that the Department of Health must strengthen its links with community outreach programmes to reach and assist as many acutely malnourished children as possible to prevent further complications,” said Clarke.
The Star
hope.mafu@inl.co.za