Maputo — More than 131,000 children suffer from chronic malnutrition in the central Mozambican province of Manica.

The data were announced last Friday at a press conference in the provincial capital, Chimoio, by Firmino Jaquet, the spokesperson for a meeting of the Manica Provincial Executive Council.

The figure sounds alarming, but is in fact a reduction. In 2013 the province had about 150,000 chronically malnourished children, corresponding to 42 percent of all children. 131,000 is 37 per cent of the estimated number of children under the age of five in the province.

"Lectures about the disease, cooking demonstrations, deworming, education about how to live with young children, and how to feed them have all contributed to the province recording this reduction", said Jaquet.

"Chronic malnutrition does not kill immediately", he continued. "But it moves on to acute malnutrition, which can be immediately fatal. It's important that we take care so that we have healthy children".

Chronic malnutrition, according to Jaquet, is associated with a lack of certain vitamins in the body, and it can be treated easily.

"Chronic malnutrition is treated and the affected child recovers easily. It can kill when it is associated with other diseases. So, we will continue to work with the communities to eliminate the problem," he said.

"Chronic malnutrition does not depend only on a single factor. The province may have a lot of production. But people don't always consume what they produce. If they consume, it may not be in the right way. Others produce and sell everything. There is also a lack of the right combination to have a healthy diet," Jaquet said.

He also noted that there are drought-stricken zones where many cases of chronic malnutrition occur. "We also have child marriages and poverty. So, these are several factors to take into account when we talk about chronic malnutrition", Jaquet added.