AsianScientist (Aug. 9, 2011) – Alarmed by millions of children dying or falling prey to diseases due to malnutrition in the Asia Pacific, the World Health Organization (WHO) warns that failure to address the issue may have dire social and economic consequences.
In a statement, WHO said the double burden of malnutrition – both undernutrition and overweight – weakens people’s immune systems and heightens the risk of noncommunicable diseases.
Not only does malnutrition affect health, it also undermines economic growth and perpetuates poverty – affecting productivity by reducing capacity to perform physical work and lessening earning ability.
Undernutrition, which is more common in Asia and linked to a shortage of quality food and poor feeding practices, contributes to about one-third of all child deaths, and impairs healthy development and life-long productivity. In addition, undernutrition combined with inadequate sanitation, leads to frequent diarrheal diseases.
About 71 million children in Asia are estimated to be underweight, according to WHO.
By contrast, being overweight contributes to chronic diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and other diet-related conditions. Global estimates suggest over 40 million children under the age of five are overweight or obese.
Worldwide, about 20 percent of deaths among children under five could be avoided through simple actions such as exclusive breastfeeding until six months, introduction of appropriate and safe complementary foods at six months, and continuation of breastfeeding for up to two years and beyond.
In an effort to reverse the rising trend in nutrition-related problems, health experts and policy-makers from Asia and the Pacific will meet from August 10 to 12 in Colombo, Sri Lanka, for three days of discussions. The meeting, the Biregional Meeting on Scaling Up Nutrition, will bring together nutrition specialists from the region.
Dr. Shin Young-soo, WHO Regional Director for the Western Pacific, emphasized that nutrition plays a major role in cognitive and IQ development.
“People with adequate nutrition are more productive and can create opportunities to gradually break the cycles of poverty and hunger,” Dr. Shin said.
Dr. Samlee Plianbangchang, WHO’s Regional Director for South-East Asia, stressed the need to address unhealthy diets – in conjunction with other risk factors – in order to combat noncommunicable diseases later in life.
“Infants who experience early growth retardation in life are at a higher risk of chronic diseases like high blood pressure, diabetes and both cardiovascular and metabolic diseases as young adults,” he said.
The 63rd World Health Assembly, WHO’s decision-making body, has recently urged member states to increase efforts to prevent and reduce malnutrition, improve infant and young feeding policies, as well as strengthen nutrition surveillance.
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Source: WHO Western Pacific Region; Photo: Scott Wallace/World Bank.
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