When children suffer from acute malnutrition, their immune systems are so impaired that the risk of death is greatly increased. Common diseases like a respiratory infection or gastroenteritis can very quickly lead to complications and possibly death. MSF has released the Starved For Attention report calling for food aid to change and for a nutrient rich diet to be made available to children.
South Asia, the Sahel and the Horn of Africa are the most alarming hotspots for child malnutrition and mortality. Wasting and other forms of acute malnutrition often appear among children in seasonal cycles, especially during the "hunger gap" period between harvests. The vast majority of the children suffering from acute malnutrition are aged between six months and two years.
Malnutrition is not merely the result of too little food. It is a pathology caused principally by a lack of one or more of the 40 essential nutrients such as zinc, vitamin A, selenium, nitrogen, essential amino acids, phosphorus and sulphur. Most food aid is an inadequate response to malnutrition as it either delivers insufficient amounts of essential nutrients or delivers them in a way that they are destroyed by cooking or not taken up properly by the body.
MSF uses ready-to-use-therapeutic food (RUTF) to treat acute malnutrition. We believe that RUTFs are more effective for treating malnutrition in children under the age of three because they include adequate levels of all the nutrients and don’t require water for preparation -which eliminates the risk of contamination with water-borne diseases. RUTF's packaging also allows it to be stored for significant periods of time and make it easier to target the child because it comes in individual packages.
In 2006, in Maradi, Niger, children suffering from moderate acute malnutrition were given these therapeutic products. Over 95 percent of these moderately malnourished children were cured. The mortality rate was just 0.4 percent.
Providing nutrient-dense ready-to-use food for all children at risk and nutritional treatment for the acutely malnourished using ready-to-use therapeutic food could have a major impact on the mortality of young children amongst the poorest populations of the world.