UNICEF chief brings world attention to child, maternal undernutrition

UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- The head of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Wednesday that a new report from her organization provides latest details and data on child and maternal undernutrition, adding that the solution is entirely possible.

Ann M. Veneman, the executive director of UNICEF, made the statement at a teleconference to launch the new UNICEF nutrition report, titled "Tracking Progress on Child and Maternal Nutrition."

"The report itself is based on the latest available data and reveals that about 195 million children under the age of five in the developing world are chronically undernourished," Veneman said.

"The report highlights 24 countries which account for 80 percent of the global burden of undernutrition," she said. "It provides detailed information on nutritional indicators for each of these 24 countries."

The new 119-page report provides the most recent health and nutrition data, improved program strategies and progress achieved to reduce the global burden of child and maternal undernutrition. It also provides information that demonstrates how improving child nutrition is entirely feasible.

Eighty percent of the developing world's stunted children live in 24 countries, including India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Egypt, Vietnam, Sudan, Kenya, Mexico and South Africa, the report said.

The 18 countries with the highest prevalence of stunting among children under five years old include Afghanistan, Yemen, Guatemala, Timor-Leste, Burundi, Madagascar, Nepal, Bhutan, India, Guinea-Bissau, Niger and Zambia. The prevalence rate in these 18 countries is 45 percent or more, with the rate in nine of these countries topping 50 percent.

Undernutrition contributes to more than a third of all deaths in children under five. Undernutrition is often invisible until it is severe, and children who appear healthy may be at grave risk of serious and even permanent damage to their health and development.

"In 2008, under-five mortality number was 8.8 million children," Veneman said. "That means that about 8.8 million children are dying every year from largely preventable causes. And malnutrition is the contributing cause for about one-third of these under-five deaths."

"If a child has diarrhea and is undernourished, that child is more likely to die from the disease combined with malnutrition," she explained.

"Undernutrition steals a child's strength and makes illnesses that the body might otherwise fight off far more dangerous," Veneman said. "More than one-third of children who die from pneumonia, diarrhea and other illnesses could have survived had they not been undernourished."

The 1,000 days from conception until a child's second birthday are the most critical for a child's development. Nutritional deficiencies during this critical period can reduce the ability tofight and survive disease, and can impair their social and mental capacities.

"A child's future nutrition status is affected before conception and is greatly dependent on the mother's nutrition status prior to and during pregnancy," the report said. "A chronically undernourished woman will give birth to a baby who is likely to be undernourished as a child, causing the cycle of undernutrition to be repeated over generations."