[Ip-health] MSF Press Release: Increased Use of New, Innovative Nutritional Products needed for malnourished children

[Buddhima Lokuge]

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Doctors Without Borders/ M=E9decins Sans Frontieres (MSF)
For Immediate Release

MSF WARNS MORE FOOD WILL NOT SAVE MALNOURISHED CHILDREN
Group Calls for Increased and Expanded Use of New, Innovative Nutritional
Products

New York, October 10, 2007. The international medical humanitarian
organization Doctors Without Borders/M=E9decins Sans Fronti=E8res (MSF) tod=
ay
called for increased and expanded use of nutrient dense ready-to-use food
(RUF) to reduce the five million annual deaths worldwide related to
malnutrition in children under five years of age. Current food aid, which
focuses on fighting hunger?not on treating malnutrition?is not doing enough=
 to
address the needs of young children most at risk, MSF warned.

"It?s not only about how much food children get, it's what's in the food th=
at
counts," said Dr. Christophe Fournier, president of MSF?s International
Council. ?Without the right amounts of vitamins and essential nutrients in
their diet, young kids become vulnerable to disease that they would normall=
y
be able to fight off easily. Calls for increased food aid ignore the specia=
l
needs of young children who are at the greatest risk of dying."

RUFs, which come in individually wrapped rations, contain all the necessary
nutrients, vitamins, and minerals that a young child needs. This dense
therapeutic food, which has milk powder, sugars, and vegetable fats, can be
produced and stored locally and transported easily, and requires no
refrigeration, making it ideal for use in hot climates. It allows a child t=
o
recover from being malnourished and catch up on lost growth. Being
easy-to-use, mothers?not doctors and nurses?are the main caregivers, meanin=
g
far more children at risk can be reached.
"In Somalia we are giving acutely malnourished kids packets of ready-to-use
food and we see them gain weight and begin thriving within a couple of week=
s,?
said Dr Gustavo Fernandez, MSF head of mission in Somalia. ?RUFs are practi=
cal
to use in places like Somalia where security is very bad. General food
distribution is also needed, but it is not going to be very effective to tr=
eat
kids under three years old."
Severe acute malnutrition in early childhood is common in large areas of th=
e
Horn of Africa, the Sahel, and South Asia - the world?s ?malnutrition
hotspots.?  The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that there are 20
million young children suffering from severe acute malnutrition at any give=
n
moment and MSF estimates that only three percent of them will receive RUF i=
n
2007.
Therapeutic RUF for only severely malnourished children, as current WHO, Wo=
rld
Food Program, and UNICEF guidelines recommend, is too restrictive. Given it=
s
nutritional benefits, RUF has the potential to address malnutrition at earl=
ier
stages and is far more effective than fortified blended flour, which is
normally distributed. MSF is piloting a program using a modified RUF as a
supplement to prevent children from becoming acutely malnourished.

"Instead of waiting for kids to get gravely ill we decided to act earlier,"
said Dr. Susan Shepherd, MSF medical coordinator, Maradi, Niger. ?We are
piloting a program that gives RUF to all children under three in at-risk
communities so that they get the nutrients that are missing in their normal
diet."

Through this early treatment or prevention approach in Niger, MSF is provid=
ing
mothers with small containers of RUF as a supplement to their normal diet.
Early results from this ongoing project, which is reaching more than 62,000
children, indicate that RUF is significantly more effective than the
traditional approach of supplying fortified flours and cooking oil to mothe=
rs
of young children.

MSF is calling for donors and UN agencies to urgently speed up the
introduction and expansion of RUF. This is going to take a new allocation o=
f
funds to cover the cost of ?750 million (approximately $1.05 billion) to re=
ach
the most vulnerable. But it will also take a realigning of food aid strateg=
ies
with existing and newly developed products that have the nutrition needed t=
o
cure malnourished children.

MSF has been treating malnutrition with therapeutic RUF since the first
products became available in the late 1990s, and in 2006 treated more than
150,000 children with acute malnutrition in 22 countries.
Background materials available online.
Food Is Not Enough: Without Essential Nutrients Millions of Children Will D=
ie
http://doctorswithoutborders.org/news/malnutrition/FoodIsNotEnough.pdf[1]

Treating Malnutrition.
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/news/malnutrition/index.cfm[2]

=3D=3D=3DReferences:=3D=3D=3D
  1. http://doctorswithoutborders.org/news/malnutrition/FoodIsNotEnough.pdf
  2. http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/news/malnutrition/index.cfm