WHO: Poor nutrition kills 100,000 children under 5 in Western Pacific every year

The World Health Organization is pushing for the Western Pacific Region to prioritize nutrition, saying that around 100,000 children below the age of 5 die annually from undernutrition. “Maternal and child undernutrition accounts for 11 percent of the global burden of disease and results in more than 100,000 child deaths annually in the Region,” said the organization in a press release on Tuesday. Its data also shows that 22 percent of school children in the region have insufficient iodine intake; 22 percent of non-pregnant women of reproductive age and 31 percent of pregnant women are affected by anemia; at least six countries list vitamin A deficiency as a public health problem; child and adult obesity rates are rapidly rising; and, based on data from 12 countries, the growth of anywhere from 4 to 48 percent of children under five years is being stunted. According to the statement, “Adequate provision of nutrients, beginning at the earliest stages of life, is essential to ensure good physical and mental development and long-term health and productivity.” The WHO Regional Committee for the Western Pacific is currently meeting in Hanoi, Vietnam to discuss the agenda for the health of the region’s citizens. “With solid evidence pointing to proper nutrition as essential for survival, health and development, the World Health Organization raised malnutrition high on the agenda of the Regional Committee for the Western Pacific,” the statement said. Despite noting that undernutrition rates in the region have dropped, WHO is still pushing to address the problem. "There is no room for complacency as the levels of maternal and young child undernutrition continue to be too high. At the same time, the rising rates of obesity and non-communicable disease represent an epidemic—one that is growing fast in our Region,” WHO Regional Director for the Western Pacific Shin Young-soo said. “This double burden of malnutrition leads to long-term negative impacts on the health and development of the people and for the economies of Member States,” Shin also said. There are 37 countries, including the Philippines, in the Western Pacific Region, which the WHO describes as one of its most diverse among the organization’s regions, noting that it accounts for a third of the world's population and includes least developed nations as well as prospering countries. According to WHO, the Regional Committee has already pledged to scale up and sustain cost-effective nutrition interventions. It is also set to endorse a resolution to scale up nutrition, based on the WHO Comprehensive Implementation Plan on Maternal, Infant and Young Child Nutrition. Increased investment in 2012–2025 to expand nutrition interventions to help solve stunting and wasting, anemia in women and low birth weight are proposed in the plan, as well as seeking to increase exclusive breast-feeding and to stop the rapid increase in child obesity. The WHO Regional Office has also formed a panel on food and nutrition security aimed at enjoining action among United Nations agencies and strengthening inter-agency collaboration in support of the region’s member states. WHO is also pushing for the Scaling Up Nutrition movement, which aims to fight hunger and undernutrition using cost-effective interventions, and where the subject of nutrition will be broached in agriculture, education, employment, social welfare and development programs. Shin also urged the Regional Committee “to expand areas for action, to identify targets and priority actions in health and other sectors, and to adopt a time frame and indicators for monitoring.” — BM, GMA News