Posts tagged Malnutrition

Chad: “The Malnutrition Situation is Dire as the Peak Season Looms” MSF is expanding its health and nutrition programs in Chad to respond to the growing malnutrition crisis in the country. MSF is currently treating malnourished children at five projects in Chad, and has dispatched emergency teams to assess whether more interventions are required. At one of MSF’s long-term projects in Am Timan, located Chad’s southeastern Salamat region, MSF is expanding its number of outreach centers from eight to twelve to respond to escalating malnutrition rates. From January though April, MSF admitted 2,478 children to ambulatory therapeutic feeding centers—almost twice as many as at the same time last year. Even in a normal year, Chad has one of the highest rates of chronic malnutrition in the world. In early 2012, in some areas of the country, rates of global acute malnutrition as high as 24 percent were reported among children under the age of five. A combination of factors is behind these alarming numbers, including failed harvests, erratic rains, soaring food prices, and an early depletion of food stocks.An MSF doctor examines a child for malnutrition at an outreach clinic near Am Timan. Chad 2012 © Catherine Robinson/MSF

Chad: “The Malnutrition Situation is Dire as the Peak Season Looms”

MSF is expanding its health and nutrition programs in Chad to respond to the growing malnutrition crisis in the country. MSF is currently treating malnourished children at five projects in Chad, and has dispatched emergency teams to assess whether more interventions are required.

At one of MSF’s long-term projects in Am Timan, located Chad’s southeastern Salamat region, MSF is expanding its number of outreach centers from eight to twelve to respond to escalating malnutrition rates. From January though April, MSF admitted 2,478 children to ambulatory therapeutic feeding centers—almost twice as many as at the same time last year.

Even in a normal year, Chad has one of the highest rates of chronic malnutrition in the world. In early 2012, in some areas of the country, rates of global acute malnutrition as high as 24 percent were reported among children under the age of five. A combination of factors is behind these alarming numbers, including failed harvests, erratic rains, soaring food prices, and an early depletion of food stocks.

An MSF doctor examines a child for malnutrition at an outreach clinic near Am Timan.
Chad 2012 © Catherine Robinson/MSF

TELL CONGRESS TO IMPROVE FOOD AID FOR MALNOURISHED CHILDREN Right now, the US Congress is considering changes to the Farm Bill, the law that dictates what kind of food aid assistance the US sends overseas. With better nutrition standards, US food aid could save more children suffering from malnutrition.TAKE ACTION! SIGN THE PETITION!photo: Burkina Faso © Jessica Dimmock

TELL CONGRESS TO IMPROVE FOOD AID FOR MALNOURISHED CHILDREN

Right now, the US Congress is considering changes to the Farm Bill, the law that dictates what kind of food aid assistance the US sends overseas. With better nutrition standards, US food aid could save more children suffering from malnutrition.

TAKE ACTION! SIGN THE PETITION!

photo: Burkina Faso © Jessica Dimmock

After being served numerous rounds of tea, one of the nutritional surveyors brought forth a father carrying his tiny child – a baby of 4 weeks, who had been sick with diarrhea for one week, and now looked like an emaciated bird. The father sat on the edge of the pink frilly mattress, and cried while I asked questions about the baby’s illness. The father, speaking fluent French, described how days earlier he had walked 4 hours each way with the baby in search of help from the nearest health centre. The health centre had been closed, and he had returned home with the baby.
Trish Newport is working for MSF as a community outreach nurse in Chad. This is her fifth mission for MSF. When not on mission, she lives and works as a nurse in the Yukon, Canada.

Read from her blog.
Fighting Unusually High Malnutrition Rates in Chad and Preparing for Worse As a food crisis continues to spread and levels of severe acute malnutrition continue to rise in Chad, MSF is expanding the number of emergency malnutrition treatment programs it is operating in the country. Even in a normal year, Chad has one of the highest rates of chronic malnutrition in the world. This year is showing signs of being worse than usual. In early 2012, in some areas of the country, rates of global acute malnutrition as high as 24 percent have already been reported among children under the age of five.Why are there such alarming rates of malnutrition in Biltine? February is the beginning of the hunger gap in Chad, when families traditionally begin to run out of their food stocks. This year MSF found high rates of severe acute malnutrition rates among children under five, because only 46 percent of the harvest required to feed the population was harvested, which is well below the average. Many Chadians who worked in Libya also lost their jobs and returned home. Those men have moved to other parts of Chad to find work, but the salaries are much lower, so they are sending home less money.A staff member uses a MUAC to check a child for malnutrition at an MSF hospital in Chad. Chad 2012 © Andrea Bussotti/MSF

Fighting Unusually High Malnutrition Rates in Chad and Preparing for Worse

As a food crisis continues to spread and levels of severe acute malnutrition continue to rise in Chad, MSF is expanding the number of emergency malnutrition treatment programs it is operating in the country. Even in a normal year, Chad has one of the highest rates of chronic malnutrition in the world. This year is showing signs of being worse than usual. In early 2012, in some areas of the country, rates of global acute malnutrition as high as 24 percent have already been reported among children under the age of five.

Why are there such alarming rates of malnutrition in Biltine?

February is the beginning of the hunger gap in Chad, when families traditionally begin to run out of their food stocks. This year MSF found high rates of severe acute malnutrition rates among children under five, because only 46 percent of the harvest required to feed the population was harvested, which is well below the average. Many Chadians who worked in Libya also lost their jobs and returned home. Those men have moved to other parts of Chad to find work, but the salaries are much lower, so they are sending home less money.

A staff member uses a MUAC to check a child for malnutrition at an MSF hospital in Chad.

Chad 2012 © Andrea Bussotti/MSF

Chad: Malnutrition Rates Soar

The difficult lean season in Chad has already begun, and MSF is working to treat malnutrition as quickly as possible. MSF teams screen for cases of severe malnutrition and distribute ready-to-use therapeutic food to malnourished children.

South Sudan: Aid Needed Before the Rains Start

Ninety-thousand refugees fleeing conflict have taken refuge in the camps of Jamam and Doro. Aid is desperately needed before the rainy season complicates access to the camps.

Burkina Faso: A Constant Flow of Refugees

Approximately 56,000 Malians have taken refuge in Burkina Faso after fleeing fighting that began in Mali in mid-January. They are living in makeshift shelters in camps where the sun beats down relentlessly and where aid is severely lacking.

Malian Refugees Urgently Need International Aid Refugees from the West African country of Mali face insufficient levels of assistance in camps rife with disease and malnutrition where the looming rainy season will further complicate the deployment of aid, the international medical humanitarian organization MSF said today. One-hundred sixty thousand Malian refugees living in camps in neighboring Burkina Faso, Mauritania, and Niger are in urgent need of international assistance, particularly food distributions, MSF said. MSF teams working in the camps are treating children suffering from malnutrition. “Food insecurity is a threat both for the Malian refugees and for the host communities, which are already suffering from poor harvests,” said Malik Allaouna, MSF director of operations. “Only food distributions in sufficient quantity and quality will prevent children’s nutritional condition from further deteriorating.” Photo:Young Malian refugees in one of Burkina Faso’s refugee camps. Burkina Faso 2012 © Aurelie Baumel/MSF

Malian Refugees Urgently Need International Aid

Refugees from the West African country of Mali face insufficient levels of assistance in camps rife with disease and malnutrition where the looming rainy season will further complicate the deployment of aid, the international medical humanitarian organization MSF said today.

One-hundred sixty thousand Malian refugees living in camps in neighboring Burkina Faso, Mauritania, and Niger are in urgent need of international assistance, particularly food distributions, MSF said. MSF teams working in the camps are treating children suffering from malnutrition.

“Food insecurity is a threat both for the Malian refugees and for the host communities, which are already suffering from poor harvests,” said Malik Allaouna, MSF director of operations. “Only food distributions in sufficient quantity and quality will prevent children’s nutritional condition from further deteriorating.”

Photo:Young Malian refugees in one of Burkina Faso’s refugee camps. Burkina Faso 2012 © Aurelie Baumel/MSF

International Aid Remains Insufficient for 160,000 Malian Refugees

Nearly 160,000 Malians have fled their country for camps in Burkina Faso, Mauritania, and Niger. While instability persists in Mali, another threat looms: the rainy season, which will further complicate the deployment of aid.

In Chad, Diseases are Spreading as Food Supplies Dwindle Food and water shortages in Chad are exacerbating malnutrition and contributing to the spread of deadly diseases like measles and meningitis. Photo: MSF staff examine a young malnutrition patient in Chad’s Yao district. (Chad 2012 © Andrea Bussotti/MSF)

In Chad, Diseases are Spreading as Food Supplies Dwindle


Food and water shortages in Chad are exacerbating malnutrition and contributing to the spread of deadly diseases like measles and meningitis.

Photo: MSF staff examine a young malnutrition patient in Chad’s Yao district. (Chad 2012 © Andrea Bussotti/MSF)

Seeing firsthand the distance so many families have to travel in order to seek basic treatment here, I worry about what the months of the hunger gap will bring when the effects of food insecurity and lack of access to early medical treatment are intertwined.
An MSF nurse writes about the positive impact community health workers have on preventing malnutrition in Chad. Read more.

Chad: On the Brink of a Peak in Malnutrition

MSF is working to treat malnourished children in Chad and elsewhere in the Sahel region as a nutritional crisis looms.

Sahel: As Likely Malnutrition Crisis Looms, MSF Prepares Short- And Long-Term Responses A food crisis has been declared in the Sahelian Band of West Africa. UNICEF has estimated that up to 15 million people in six countries in the region are living with moderate or acute food insecurity. In a region where global acute childhood malnutrition rates regularly near the warning threshold of 10 percent, any factor that further reduces access to food can tip the situation into a full-blown nutritional crisis. Although MSF has not yet noted a significant increase in cases in most of its current nutritional programs, the organization did have to open new malnutrition treatment programs in Biltine and Yao, in Chad, where rates of acute malnutrition of 24 percent and 20 percent, respectively, have been reported. Teams are also evaluating the nutritional situation in other areas of Chad, as well as in Mali, Niger, Mauritania, and Senegal. “It is too soon to know the extent of the expected nutritional crisis,” says Stéphane Doyon, manager of MSF’s malnutrition campaign. “Traditionally, the most difficult period is still ahead, between May and July. However, we already project that hundreds of thousands of children will suffer from acute severe malnutrition, as they do every year in this region.”Photo: Chad 2011 © Alfons Rodriguez An MSF staff member measures the mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) of a child with severe acute malnutrition in Chad.

Sahel: As Likely Malnutrition Crisis Looms, MSF Prepares Short- And Long-Term Responses

A food crisis has been declared in the Sahelian Band of West Africa. UNICEF has estimated that up to 15 million people in six countries in the region are living with moderate or acute food insecurity. In a region where global acute childhood malnutrition rates regularly near the warning threshold of 10 percent, any factor that further reduces access to food can tip the situation into a full-blown nutritional crisis.

Although MSF has not yet noted a significant increase in cases in most of its current nutritional programs, the organization did have to open new malnutrition treatment programs in Biltine and Yao, in Chad, where rates of acute malnutrition of 24 percent and 20 percent, respectively, have been reported. Teams are also evaluating the nutritional situation in other areas of Chad, as well as in Mali, Niger, Mauritania, and Senegal.

“It is too soon to know the extent of the expected nutritional crisis,” says Stéphane Doyon, manager of MSF’s malnutrition campaign. “Traditionally, the most difficult period is still ahead, between May and July. However, we already project that hundreds of thousands of children will suffer from acute severe malnutrition, as they do every year in this region.”

Photo: Chad 2011 © Alfons Rodriguez
An MSF staff member measures the mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) of a child with severe acute malnutrition in Chad.

Chad Facing Malnutrition and Meningitis Emergencies Severe acute malnutrition in parts of Chad has reached emergency levels, requiring immediate life-saving interventions, the international medical humanitarian organization MSF said today. Nutrition assessments carried out by MSF have revealed alarming levels of malnutrition among children in multiple districts of the country. An expanding meningitis outbreak in Chad is also threatening the population and requires an urgent response. “We can see clearly that in some parts of Chad there are already very alarming rates of malnutrition among children,” said Dr. Kodjo Edoh, MSF’s head of mission in Chad. “We are concerned that this situation might also be affecting other districts in the country and we urge the Chadian government and humanitarian agencies to investigate and act.”The discovered rates are of great concern because the month of February normally features the lowest malnutrition rates of the year. A considerable deterioration has taken place since UNICEF collected data in the same region in August and September 2011, which showed 4.6 percent for severe malnutrition and 18 percent for global.Chad 2011 © Marja Scholten MSF staff carrying out a meningitis vaccination campaign in December 2011, using the MenAfriVac vaccine, which protects for far longer than other meningitis vaccines

Chad Facing Malnutrition and Meningitis Emergencies

Severe acute malnutrition in parts of Chad has reached emergency levels, requiring immediate life-saving interventions, the international medical humanitarian organization MSF said today.

Nutrition assessments carried out by MSF have revealed alarming levels of malnutrition among children in multiple districts of the country. An expanding meningitis outbreak in Chad is also threatening the population and requires an urgent response.

“We can see clearly that in some parts of Chad there are already very alarming rates of malnutrition among children,” said Dr. Kodjo Edoh, MSF’s head of mission in Chad. “We are concerned that this situation might also be affecting other districts in the country and we urge the Chadian government and humanitarian agencies to investigate and act.”

The discovered rates are of great concern because the month of February normally features the lowest malnutrition rates of the year. A considerable deterioration has taken place since UNICEF collected data in the same region in August and September 2011, which showed 4.6 percent for severe malnutrition and 18 percent for global.

Chad 2011 © Marja Scholten MSF staff carrying out a meningitis vaccination campaign in December 2011, using the MenAfriVac vaccine, which protects for far longer than other meningitis vaccines