Malnutrition Contributes to Child Mortality

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http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2003/2003-07-01-09.asp#anchor5

 

Malnutrition Contributes to Child Mortality

 

ITHACA, New York, July 1, 2003 (ENS) – About 11 million children die worldwide

each year. A Cornell University expert, writing in the authoritative medical

journal “The Lancet,” says that eight million of those deaths could be prevented

each year.

That is because almost 60 percent of deaths of children under the age of five in

the developing world are due to malnutrition and its interactive effects on

preventable diseases.

" Every single day, 365 days a year, an attack against children occurs that is 10

times greater than the death toll from the World Trade Center, " says Jean-Pierre

Habicht, professor of epidemiology and nutritional sciences at Cornell.

Almost 90 percent of child deaths occur in just 42 countries, and a quarter of

these deaths occur before age five in the poorest countries, such as the African

countries of Angola and Niger.

" We know how to prevent these deaths,” said Habicht. “We have the biological

knowledge and tools to stop this public health travesty, but we're not yet doing

it. "

Habicht, a member of the Bellagio Child Survival Study Group of child health

researchers, has authored the first of a series of five articles on how to

prevent the global toll on young children in the June 28 issue if " The Lancet. "

The others will follow in the next four consecutive issues.

Ten years ago, child health experts believed that malnutrition played only a

negligible role in child mortality in the developing world.

Habicht and his colleagues at Cornell then published a study showing that the

majority of these childhood deaths were due to the interactive effect of

malnutrition on disease, and that more than 80 percent of malnutrition related

deaths were due to mild to moderate malnutrition rather than severe

malnutrition.

The researchers found that malnourished children are up to 12 times more likely

to die from easily preventable and treatable diseases than are well nourished

children.

" Malnutrition kills in two strokes,” said Habicht. “It makes children more

vulnerable to severe malnutrition if they fall ill, and this, in turn,

contributes substantially to the global level of malnutrition that kills if a

child is ill. "

The first step in preventing child death is to make sure that every child is

well nourished, Habicht said, a notion that is both scientifically and

economically feasible.

Habicht points out that both malnourished and well nourished children are killed

by a few preventable diseases, such as measles, malaria, diarrhea and pneumonia,

which can be prevented or managed effectively to prevent death.

" These are also the diseases that kill malnourished children, so dealing with

these diseases is a first step for well fed children and a fallback step for

malnourished children, " Habicht said. ”Preventing deaths from these diseases

costs only pennies per year.”

Despite effective and inexpensive preventions, the death toll is high because of

problems at upper levels of organizations, Habicht said. Either families do not

get the information they need to seek medical care or help is not available

because the organization of services is inadequate.

" These issues turn out to be more difficult to resolve than the biological

challenge was, " said Habicht, adding that little research is devoted to

developing, testing and implementing strategies for care compared to the amount

of research that goes into improving the biological effectiveness of care.

" We know how to prevent the deaths of millions of children, " said Habicht. " Now

we just have to do it. "

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