Background

• Globally, maternal and child under-nutrition are underlying causes for 3·5 million deaths, including 35% of the disease burden in children younger than 5 years. Of the 40 countries with a child stunting prevalence of 40% or more, 23 are in Africa.
• Severe malnutrition may act as a direct cause of death or an indirect cause by increasing dramatically the number of deaths in children suffering from common childhood illnesses such as diarrhoea and pneumonia.
• Despite the above, the burden of child mortality due to severe malnutrition remains largely absent from the international health agenda and few countries, even in high prevalence areas, have specific national policies aimed at addressing it comprehensively.
• The most vulnerable are children under five and pregnant and lactating women. The poor nutritional status and nutritional intake of pregnant women may contribute to newborns with low birth weight (a weight measured immediately after birth). A newborn weighing less than 2500 grams (2.5 kg or 5.5 Ib) is considered a newborn with low birth weight (LBW). LBW is a major determinant of death, illness and disability in infancy and childhood and also impacts health outcomes in adult life.
• Socio-economic conditions, poor water and sanitation, mothers’ nutritional education on how to feed babies and young children, and repeated infections are the main causes of malnutrition.
• Programmes elaborated to eradicate malnutrition are on food security, water and sanitation, promotion of infant and young children feeding practices, micronutrient supplementation programmes, management of severe cases of malnutrition in the communities and in the health facilities, management of infections mainly diarrhoeal disease.
• Many sporadic surveys are being organized, but nutrition surveillance is currently poorly implemented and does not allow for interventions related to prevention and management of malnutrition.