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Community-Based Management of Severe Malnutrition in Children
Severe malnutrition is a life threatening condition requiring urgent
treatment. Until recently, the recommendation was to refer these children to
hospital to receive therapeutic diets along with medical care. The situation
changed recently with the advent of ready to use therapeutic foods (RUTF) which
allows the management in the community of large numbers of children who are
severely malnourished without medical complications. A meeting of experts was
organized by the Department of Child and Adolescent Health and Development and
the Department of Nutrition for Health and Development of the WHO, by UNICEF and
the UN Standing committee on Nutrition in Geneva on 21-23rd November 2005 to
review these recent developments and formulate recommendations. The report of
this meeting, published as SCN Nutrition Policy Paper
No. 21 as a supplement to the UNU Food and Nutrition Bulletin, is available
here. It is expected that implementation
of these community-based interventions on a large scale along with a
strengthening of referral facilities for severely malnourished children with
complications could transform the lives of millions of these children.
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