[AODA members] FW: Maternal and child undernutrition: an urgent opportunity

[Patricia Kramer]

Passing along this info on international nutrition.  It is free to become a member on the lancet site to read the articles.
Patricia Kramer, M.S.,R.D.


Subject: FW: Maternal and child undernutrition: an urgent opportunityDate: Thu, 17 Jan 2008 09:19:40 -0600From: Pat.Kramer at dhss.mo.govTo: nutrigirl74 at hotmail.com

 
 
Patricia Kramer, MS, RD, LD Nutrition Coordinator Nutrition and Physical Activity Program to Prevent Obesity and Other Chronic Diseases Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services Bureau of Health Promotion Section of Chronic Disease Prevention and Nutrition Services Division of Community and Public Health e-mail:  pat.kramer at dhss.mo.gov Phone: (573) 522-2820 CONFIDENTIALITY STATEMENT This electronic communication is from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services and is confidential, privileged and intended only for use of the recipient named above.  If you are not the intended recipient or the employee or agent responsible for delivering this information to the intended recipient, unauthorized disclosure, copying, distribution or use of the contents of this transmission is strictly prohibited.  If you received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately at the following e-mail address pat.kramer at dhss.mo.gov or by calling 573-522-2820.  Thank you.
-----Original Message-----From: Coffman, Diane Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2008 8:17 AMTo: Kramer, PatSubject: FW: Maternal and child undernutrition: an urgent opportunity
 
Thought you might find this interesting.
Diane Coffman Community Policy Specialist Tobacco Use Prevention Bureau of Health Promotion Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services PO Box 570 920 Wildwood Drive Jefferson City, MO 65102 (573) 522-2820 toll free:  (866) 726-9926 fax:  (573) 522-2856 Diane.Coffman at dhss.mo.gov 
-----Original Message-----From: The Lancet [mailto:lancetmkt at mail.elsevier-alerts.com]Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2008 2:32 AMTo: Coffman, DianeSubject: Maternal and child undernutrition: an urgent opportunity







The Launch of The Lancet's Series on Maternal and Child Undernutrition - today The Lancet's Editor Dr Richard Horton and a team of international experts launch this series, and the text of Dr Horton's comment which opens the Series can be found below. Maternal and child undernutrition: an urgent opportunity Nutrition is a desperately neglected aspect of maternal, newborn, and child health. The reasons for this neglect are understandable but not justifiable. When one considers specific actions to improve maternal and child survival, one is drawn to particular interventions-vaccination, oral rehydration therapy, and the treatment of infection and haemorrhage. In recent years, this portfolio of responses has broadened to embrace the health system-human resources, financing, and stewardship. Somehow, nutrition has slipped through the gap. 
  And yet we know that nutrition is a major risk factor for disease *. What public-health experts and policymakers have not done is to gather the evi-dence about the importance of maternal and child nutrition, catalogue the long-term effects of under-nutrition on development and health, identify proven interventions to reduce undernutrition, and call for national and international action to improve nutri-tion for mothers and children. The five-part Series on maternal and child undernutrition , launched this week by The Lancet, aims to fill this gap in global public health and policy action. 
  The key messages of the Series, which has been written by an independent team of public-health scientists led by Robert Black, Zulfiqar Bhutta, Jennifer Bryce, Saul Morris, and Cesar Victora, are critically important for all those concerned with the health and wellbeing of women and children. Under-nutrition is the largely preventable cause of over a third-3.5 million-of all child deaths. Stunting, severe wasting, and intrauterine growth restriction are among the most important problems. There is a golden interval for intervention: from pregnancy to 2 years of age. After age 2 years, undernutrition will have caused irreversible damage for future development towards adulthood. 
  Incredibly, four-fifths of undernourished children live in just 20 countries across four region-Africa, Asia, western Pacific, and the middle East. These are the priority nations for action. In terms of under-5 mortality rates, the most immediate needs are for Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Madagascar, Kenya, Yemen, and Burma. In order of population size, and excluding the countries with highest mortality rates, the ranking is different: India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Philippines, Egypt, South Africa, Sudan, and Nepal. 
  As this Series shows so clearly, there are proven effective interventions to reduce stunting and micro-nutrient deficiencies. According to strict criteria around admissible evidence, breastfeeding counselling, vitamin A supplementation, and zinc fortification have the greatest benefits. Attention to maternal nutrition through adequate dietary intake in pregnancy and supplementation with iron, folic acid, and possibly other micronutrients and calcium are likely to provide value. But these interventions need additional programmatic experience about how to achieve full coverage. 
  There is no magic technological bullet to solve the problem of undernutrition. Long-term investments in the role of women as full and equal citizens-through education, economic, social, and political empowerment-will be the only way to deliver sustainable improvements in maternal and child nutrition, and in the health of women and children more generally. 
  The compelling logic of this scientific evidence is that governments need national plans to scale-up nutrition interventions, systems to monitor and evaluate those plans, and laws and policies to enhance the rights and status of women and children. Although complex and fraught with political disagreement, none of these solutions are separable from global treaties and negotiations over trade, agriculture, and poverty reduction. This latest Lancet Series concludes, not surprisingly perhaps, that the international nutrition system is broken. Leadership is absent, resources are too few, capacity is fragile, and emergency response systems are fragmentary. New governance arrange-ments are urgently needed. An agency, donor, or political leader needs to step up to this challenge. There is a fabulous opportunity right now for someone to do so. But who? 
Richard Horton The Lancet, London NW1 7BY, UK *     Lopez AD, Mathers CD, Ezzati M, Jamison DT, Murray CJL. Global and regional burden of disease and risk factors, 2001: systematic analysis of population health data. Lancet 2006; 367: 1747-57. Click here to find out more.







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