Provide treatment for malnourished children

Children with wasting were 11 times more likely to die than well-nourished children. This makes wasting one of the most important causes of death in children.

On today's International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, this article highlights one of the biggest humanitarian challenges - child nutrition.

Good nutrition is the cornerstone of child survival and development. Yet many children, especially the poorest and most vulnerable, do not receive the nutritious food and social support they need to survive, develop and thrive. Wasting affects 47 million children worldwide. Extremely wasted children with weakened immune systems are at greater risk of death. They require emergency treatment and care to survive.

A health package for the treatment and management of malnutrition has proven to be an effective solution, and includes providing patients with a specially formulated peanut butter known as a 'therapeutic ready-to-eat nutritional food'. Under the framework of the South-South Cooperation Assistance Fund, UNICEF has cooperated with the China International Development Cooperation Agency to provide treatment for children suffering from acute malnutrition in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Malawi, Senegal and South Sudan.

One of the ways to identify severe acute malnutrition is to measure children's mid-upper arm circumference. A measurement tool specially developed for this purpose makes it easier for healthcare workers to identify severe acute malnutrition: green is good, yellow is malnourished and red is severe malnutrition.

In most cases, therapeutic ready-to-eat nutritious foods can be used to treat children with wasting in their own homes and communities, rather than in healthcare settings. In South Sudan, 11-month-old Janti Victor has been participating in a UNICEF nutrition program in Yambio for four weeks. "She had diarrhea for several days and couldn't absorb the food we gave her, so she was malnourished," said Janti's mother, Margaret Michael. She took Janti to a UNICEF-supported nutrition center , where the child was diagnosed with severe acute malnutrition.

"Janti was not very energetic at the time. After taking the therapeutic ready-to-eat nutritional food, she came back to life very quickly. You could tell how much she liked the food."

Four weeks later, Genti's mid-upper arm circumference is still in the red range, but she has changed a lot and now has the energy to play and interact with people. She will continue to take the therapeutic ready-to-eat nutritional food until the mid-upper arm test strips are green and she is fully recovered.

UNICEF is also helping countries diversify and increase access to therapeutic ready-to-eat nutritious foods, so children in need can receive treatment closer to them. We also support improving the formulation of therapeutic ready-to-eat nutritious foods, making them more accessible to children and enabling governments to obtain affordable and sustainable supplies.

Together with the World Health Organization and other partners, UNICEF develops global guidelines for the early detection and treatment of childhood wasting and helps governments update and align their strategies with global policy. China has donated through the South-South Cooperation Assistance Fund to help improve newborn care and child health, and to prevent, detect and treat severe acute malnutrition.

An annual United Nations study shows that hunger is on the rise. The number of chronically undernourished people has increased by tens of millions over the past five years, and countries around the world continue to struggle with malnutrition in all its forms.

The latest edition of The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, released today, estimates that nearly 690 million people suffered from hunger in 2019, an increase of 10 million from 2018 and almost 60 million from five years ago. High costs and low affordability mean that billions of people do not have access to healthy, nutritious food. Asia has the highest number of hungry people, but Africa has the fastest growing number of hungry people. Globally, the report predicts that the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic could add more than 130 million people to chronic hunger by the end of 2020 (and the sudden onset of severe hunger during the pandemic could further increase this figure).

"The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World" continues to track progress in eradicating hunger and malnutrition. It is the most authoritative global research report in this field. Prepared jointly by the UN and the World Health Organization.

In the "Foreword", the heads of the five agencies[i] warn that "five years after the world made a commitment to eradicate hunger, food insecurity and all forms of malnutrition, yet five years later we still There is no guarantee that this will be achieved by 2030".

Interpreting hunger numbers

In this year's report, the estimate of the number of hungry people in the world has been revised down significantly to 690 million due to an update of key figures for China and other populous countries[ii]. However, the general trend has not changed. Despite revisions to all hunger-related data series since 2000, we reach the same conclusion: After decades of steady decline, the number of chronic hunger has slowly increased since 2014 and has continued .

Asia continues to have the highest number of undernourished people (381 million), followed by Africa (250 million), followed by Latin America and the Caribbean (48 million). The global prevalence of undernourishment, or the proportion of people who suffer from hunger, has remained roughly constant at 8.9 percent, but the absolute number has been increasing since 2014. This means that over the past five years, the number of hungry people has grown in step with the global population.

Behind this are huge differences between regions: in percentage terms, the situation is worst in Africa and continues to worsen, with a total of 19.1% of the African population undernourished, followed by Asia (8.3%) and Latin America and the Caribbean ( 7.4%) more than double that. On current trends, by 2030 more than half of the world's chronically hungry will be in Africa.

Impact of the epidemic

While progress in the fight against hunger is stalled, the COVID-19 pandemic is highlighting the fragility and gaps in the global food system, including all activities and processes involved in the production, distribution and consumption of food. While it is too early to assess the full impact of socio-economic restrictions in response to the pandemic, the report estimates that at least around 83 million and possibly 132 million more people will suffer from hunger in 2020 as a result of the pandemic-induced recession[iii] . This setback has raised doubts about whether achieving SDG 2 (Zero Hunger) is still possible.

Unhealthy diets, food insecurity and malnutrition

Eradicating hunger and all forms of malnutrition (including undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, overweight and obesity) means not only getting enough food to sustain yourself, but also food that is rich in nutrients, especially for children. A key barrier for many households is the high cost of nutritious food, making healthy meals unaffordable.

The report uses evidence to show that a healthy diet costs more than the international poverty line of $1.90 a day. Even the cheapest healthy meal costs five times as much as a purely starchy meal. Nutritious dairy products, fruits, vegetables and high-protein foods (both plant and animal sources) are the most expensive food categories around the world.

The latest estimates suggest that more than 3 billion people in the world cannot afford a healthy diet. In sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, 57 percent of the population falls into this category, while no other region is spared, including North America and Europe. One consequence of this is that our efforts to eradicate malnutrition seem to be thwarted. Between one quarter and one third of children under the age of five (191 million) faced stunting or wasting in 2019, meaning they were too short or too thin, the report said. In addition, 38 million children under the age of five are overweight. At the same time, obesity has become a global epidemic among adults.

call to action

The report says that once sustainability is fully considered, a shift to healthy diets can be encouraged globally, in an effort to reverse the current downward spiral into hunger, while saving significant amounts of money. The report calculates that such a shift would almost completely remove the annual health costs of unhealthy diets estimated at $1.3 trillion by 2030, while reducing the estimated $1.7 trillion in diet-related greenhouse gas emissions. Three-quarters reduction in social costs[iv].

The report urges food system transformation to reduce the cost of nutritious food and increase the affordability of healthy diets. While specific solutions vary across countries and even within countries, the overall approach is consistent, including across food supply chains, the food environment, and the political economy that affects trade, public spending, and investment policies Take interventions. The report calls on governments to mainstream nutrition into their national agricultural policies; work to reduce cost-increasing factors in food production, storage, transport, distribution and distribution (including mitigating inefficiencies and food loss and waste); and support small-scale producers Produce, market and secure more nutritious food; prioritize child nutrition as the group most in need; encourage behavior change through education and advocacy; integrate nutrition into national social protection systems and investment strategies.