Severe childhood malnutrition sets off alarm bells
Severe wasting is the most lethal form of under-nutrition and one of the top threats to child survival.
What you need to know:
- Unlike famine or starvation, relatively few people have heard of severe wasting – also known as severe acute malnutrition – even though it affects around 13.6 million children globally under the age of five.
- According to experts, ongoing conflicts and climate-related emergencies meant that this number was already likely to grow.
The United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) has raised an alarm after it found that one in every five deaths among children under five are attributed to severe wasting, which is caused by a lack of nutritious food and repeated bouts of diseases such as diarrhoea, measles and malaria, which compromise a child’s immunity.
The global body responsible for providing humanitarian and developmental aid to children worldwide in its latest report released last week and titled, ‘Child alert; Severe wasting’, observes that severe wasting is the most lethal form of under-nutrition and one of the top threats to child survival.
Unlike famine or starvation, relatively few people have heard of severe wasting – also known as severe acute malnutrition – even though it affects around 13.6 million children globally under the age of five. According to experts, ongoing conflicts and climate-related emergencies meant that this number was already likely to grow.
“But with so many countries heavily reliant on exports from Ukraine and Russia, the war in Ukraine is threatening to plunge the world even deeper into a food crisis. Meanwhile, the price of life-saving ready-to-use therapeutic foods is projected to soar in the coming months, placing even more children’s lives at risk,” Unicef points out.
The report further explains that countries across a variety of regions have seen a rise in wasting levels since 2016.
“There’s no single reason for this alarming rise. But cases are rapidly increasing in areas affected by conflict and climate shocks, precisely where the risk of child mortality is already highest. If we fail to significantly reduce the number of affected children, severe wasting will continue to limit the extent to which we can reduce child deaths from all causes.”
The global body cites Uganda.
“Wasting isn’t only rising in countries facing humanitarian crises – countries across a variety of regions, including some relatively stable, have seen an increase in child wasting by more than 40 per cent. “ For example, in Uganda, child wasting has increased by around 60 per cent since 2016. Yet despite the scale of the problem, relatively small additional investments in treatment for severe wasting could lead to an exponential reduction in child deaths.”
Unicef reminds that the reality is that we already have the knowledge and tools to save hundreds of thousands of lives each year from this excruciatingly painful condition.
“Ending global hunger and malnutrition won’t happen overnight and there is plenty we can do right now to stop children from dying from severe wasting,” it states..
