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DateLine Sunday, 9 September 2007

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Malnutrition 'killing millions of kids'

Malnutrition kills nearly six million children a year, mainly in developing countries, despite the availability of relatively cheap solutions that could improve global nutrition, a report said.

While low and middle-income countries bear the brunt (impact) of the problem, malnutrition affects some rich countries as well, said the report by the Population Reference Bureau, a Washington policy research group.

The bureau's '2007 World Population Data Sheet' and two companion reports provide up-to-date demographic (to do with human populations), health and environmental data for all the countries and major regions of the world.

The report said poor nutrition during the mother's pregnancy and the baby's early years cause severe and irreversible (permanent) mental and physical damage.

Bill Butz, president of the Population Reference Bureau, said the public often does not consider the deadly toll of malnutrition among children "because it does not kill young children directly, as does pneumonia or diarrhoea.

"Many of these deaths could be averted (prevented) through nutrition measures that are known to be effective, often at low cost," Butz said.

"Malnutrition often increases susceptibility (vulnerability) to disease, while ill health exacerbates (makes worse) poor nutrition," the report said. "For countries ravaged (damaged) by the HIV/AIDS epidemic, malnutrition appears to increase vulnerability to infection and render retro viral treatments less effective."

Despite some important progress, the report said, about 30 per cent of children in low- and middle-income countries are underweight. The largest problems are in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. For example, almost half the children are underweight in some Indian states.

To improve nutrition in the short term, the report said, countries should begin monitoring and promoting growth, changing nutritional behaviour, improving communication with people at risk of malnutrition and introducing iodised salt.

Later they could establish community-based nutrition programmes that target young children, adolescent (teenaged) girls and pregnant women.

Sydney Morning Herald

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