PARIS (AP) – The economic downturn caused by the corona virus outbreak has progressed for decades against the most severe malnutrition, and could kill 168,000 children before a global recovery, according to a study released by 30 international organizations on Monday.
Study Combines economic and nutritional data and target phone surveys collected this year from the Federation for Nutrition. Saskia Ocendorp, who led the research, estimates that an additional 11.9 million children – in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa – will be stumbled upon and wasted in the most severe forms of malnutrition.
Women who are now pregnant “will give birth to malnourished children at birth, These children are lagging behind from the beginning, ”said Ocendorp, managing director of the Nutrition Council. “An entire generation is in danger.”
The fight against malnutrition was an undeclared global success until the corona virus epidemic struck.
“This may seem like an issue that has always been with us, but before COVID the numbers were declining,” said Lawrence Haddad, executive director of the Global Coalition for Advanced Nutrition. “Ten years of progress in 9 to 10 months is eliminated.”
Prior to the epidemic, the number of children worldwide declining each year fell from 199.5 million in 2000 to 144 million in 2019. The number of children affected by wastage fell from 54 million in 2010 to 47 million last year. It is expected to rise back to 2010 levels, according to the study.
The study was published at the beginning of a one-year effort to raise money against malnutrition. About $ 3 billion was announced, but some of them included pre-commitments. Pakistan, the world’s most malnourished country, has pledged to spend $ 2.2 billion by 2025.
The consortium includes the World Bank, the World Food Program, UNICEF and USIIT and private health foundations and universities. UNICEF has pledged to spend $ 700 million annually on nutrition programs over the next five years, $ 224 million more than in the past five years.
The next step is for governments to take responsibility for their promises, especially to citizens who are more vulnerable to malnutrition.
“A lot of hunger is about governance,” he said. Infection clarifies the benefits of nutrition because malnutrition makes the body vulnerable to all kinds of diseases, including the corona virus. “Nutrition is everyone’s best bet until the vaccine arrives.”
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