The NFSC department in collaboration with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Lebanon and the Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) conducted an advanced training workshop on acute malnutrition among children, from the 1st till the 3rd of December, 2017 at the Serenade Golden Tulip Hotel. The training sessions intended to improve the technical knowledge of pediatricians and pediatric nurses when dealing with severe acute malnutrition (SAM) with medical complications, and to reduce mortality rate among children under five years old.
Dr. Omar Obeid, professor of Nutrition, as well as Dr. Marko Kerac, program director at Nutrition for Global Health, assistant professor and clinical Lecturer at Public Health Nutrition, UK facilitated the three-day technical training that included 11 pediatricians and 19 pediatric nurses. Attendees included staff in the field of health and nutrition from all districts of Lebanon. Currently, each district has trained staff in at least one hospital within its geographical borders.
The course started with Dr. Obeid who welcomed the audience and provided a general introduction about malnutrition. Then, Mrs. Rima Shaya from MOPH gave a brief overview about Community-based Management of Acute Malnutrition in Lebanon and introduced, for the first time, the Arabic version of the Lebanese guidelines that tackle the management of acute malnutrition. Copies of these guidelines were distributed to all attendees. Later, Dr. Kerac went over the timetable and defined malnutrition among children.
The training session on the second and third days covered malnutrition in depth focusing on pathophysiology, treatment, common inpatient complications and disabilities, etc. Clinical cases were extensively presented in every session, and the participants shared their experience and expertise in the field, which made the course interactive and rich. The evaluation of the workshop presented high levels of satisfaction.
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