China
Africa
Explore chapters and articles related to this topic
General assessment of children and young people
Published in Miriam Orcutt, Clare Shortall, Sarah Walpole, Aula Abbara, Sylvia Garry, Rita Issa, Alimuddin Zumla, Ibrahim Abubakar, Handbook of Refugee Health, 2021
Sylvia Garry, Joia de Sa, Emma Sherwood, Sarah May Johnson, Amy Potter, Jess Atkinson
Global acute malnutrition incorporates MAM and SAM. Severity is assessed using weight-for-length/height, and MUAC in children 6–59 months. Signs of SAM include weight-for-length/height below −3 standard deviations (SD), MUAC < 115 mm or the presence of oedema of the feet.16 National guidance should be consulted as the distinction of SAM versus MAM may vary from WHO recommendations. All children with malnutrition should be assessed for other signs of nutritional deficiencies, especially vitamin A deficiency.
Refugees and Health in Urban Africa
Published in Igor Vojnovic, Amber L. Pearson, Gershim Asiki, Geoffrey DeVerteuil, Adriana Allen, Handbook of Global Urban Health, 2019
Malnutrition is a major challenge in refugee populations, especially among vulnerable groups such as pregnant and lactating women, children under the age of five years, the sick and the elderly, as they have special nutritional needs. Although the World Food Programme (WFP) provides food rations and numerous non-government organizations (NGOs) implement nutrition and health programmes (Doocy et al. 2011), food supply is often not sufficient to meet the needs of the populations, resulting in both macro- and micronutrient deficiencies. Thus both acute and chronic forms of malnutrition are common. A survey among refugees from South Sudan residing in the three camps in Ethiopia found the prevalence of global acute malnutrition among children aged 6–59 months to be 30%, twice the WHO emergency threshold of 15% (Andresen et al. 2014). A high incidence of micronutrient deficiency diseases has been reported in refugee camps, including pellagra (niacin deficiency), scurvy (vitamin C deficiency) and anaemia (iron deficiency) (Seal et al. 2005, 2007). Nearly half of the children in a refugee camp in Uganda had anaemia (Andresen et al. 2014). Iron deficiency is the most common type of anaemia among refugee children and women. In the children, this results from iron deficiency in the mother, prolonged exclusive breastfeeding, low iron intake, impaired absorption due to chronic episodes of diarrhoea, and parasitic infections (NSW Refugee Health Service 2009). Refugee children commonly experience severe dental caries and gum disease owing to substandard dental care and hygiene, and poor nutrition. Besides provision of food rations, advice about healthy eating, the advantages of breastfeeding over bottle feeding, and oral hygiene is important (NSW Refugee Health Service 2009). Malnutrition can contribute to more than half of child deaths in refugee camp settings (Toole and Waldman 1988). Addressing malnutrition among vulnerable groups within the refugee population would thus reduce mortality to a great extent.
Meeting the food needs of refugee children in the northern and eastern regions of Cameroon: current challenges faced and strategies to overcome them
Published in South African Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2019
SN Cumber, KN Nchanji, CH Ngwa
Humanitarian relief agencies such as the World Food Programme (WFP), and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) have made several successful attempts to address the chronic food needs such as the signing of partnership agreements with the Cameroon government (a case in point is United Nations Development Assistance—Cameroon), the transfer of authority to the Cameroon government with regard to the registration of refugees, and the supply of agricultural kits to 6 676 refugee farmers in Logone and Chari area of the far North Regions3, to say the least, though much is still left undone. The European Commission, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund through United Nations Development Assistance (UNDAF) and in Cameroon the Orange Foundation and MTN Foundation have been funding several projects to increase food supply to affected refugee children in these regions. Several identified affected children have been received for treatment, and many in sound health, though cases of malnutrition are still being witnessed. Due to efforts made by the World Food Programme (WFP),6 in 2017 nearly 500 000 people received food aid in the Far North region of Cameroon, including refugee children.6 In the framework of malnutrition reduction among refugee children, 138 000 children in the Far North and Eastern regions of Cameroon received nutrition and health packages to boast their health status.6 As a result of efforts made by the WFP, global acute malnutrition rates dropped from 4% in January 2017 to 2.7% in March 2017, thereby showing the impact on malnutrition prevalence reduction among refugee children as a result of humanitarian relief efforts.6 The facilitation of delivery of food aid to affected families through the air flight system in the Northern regions has greatly bridged the limited access to affected families faced by most non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the field.1–5
Current Status of Malnutrition and Stunting in Pakistani Children: What Needs to Be Done?
Published in Journal of the American College of Nutrition, 2021
So far, the National Nutrition Survey (NNS-2018) is the largest country-wide survey in Pakistan that has collected district level data from 115,500 households on the nutritional and health status of children under five, adolescent girls, women of childbearing age, including pregnant and breastfeeding women. It has also collected data on food security, dietary habits and breast-feeding practices, household water quality, sanitation facilities as well as the socio-economic factors that may impact the nutrition and health related indicators such as household income, gender empowerment, and mother’s educational level, etc. [73]. The findings revealed overtime changes in nutrition indicators of the country, following the implementation of various nutrition and social support programs/initiatives during the past. According to NNS-2018, currently around 12 million children in Pakistan are stunted with an overall prevalence rate of stunting at 40.2%. The prevalence rate of stunting varies with the geographical location from 32.6% in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) to 48.3% in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa-newly merged districts (KP-NMD). The average overall annual reduction rate in stunting in the country is estimated to be at only 0.5%, which is too slow to slash stunting in Pakistan. The survey indicated that the prevalence of wasting is on the rise, from 8.6% in 1997 to 15.1% in 2011 and 17.7% in 2018, the highest rate in Pakistan’s history. It is more common in Sindh (23.3%) and KP-NMD (23.1%), whereas is lower in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) and ICT areas at 9.4% and 12.1%, respectively. The data portrays a grim picture of nutrition in Sindh, as 48% of children under the age of five are stunted including 35% severely stunted. The incidence of global acute malnutrition (GAM) in districts of Tharparkar, Sanghar, and Qamber-Shahdadkot has been found to be 22.7%, 16% and 13.8%, respectively. The number of overweight children under 5 years has almost doubled since 2011 from 5% to 9.5% in 2018, the highest in KP-NMD and Balochistan (18.7% and 16.7%, respectively), and lowest in Sindh (5.2%) and ICT (5.8%). The number of anemic children increased from 50.9% in 2001 to 61.9% in 2011 with a little decline in 2018 (53.7%). The frequency of iron deficiency anemia is 28.6%, zinc deficiency is 18.6%, and Vitamin A deficiency is 51.5%. Although undernutrition in women of reproductive age declined from 18% in 2011 to 14% in 2018, the rate of overweight and obesity has increased from 28% in 2011 to 37.8% in 2018. The survey revealed that 12.7% Pakistani children develop one or other functional disability, 1.2% in seeing, 1.5% in hearing, 2.6% in walking, 4.5% in remembering, 8.5% in self-care and 5.6% in communication [73].