Wasting – Simplifying Management during the COVID-19 Pandemic
“Globally, 1 in 5 deaths among children under the age of 5 is attributed to severe wasting – also known as severe acute malnutrition – making it one of the top threats to child survival, robbing the lives of more than 1 million children each year.” ( Child Health Alert 2022 ) Wasting is when a child is too thin for their height. It is caused by a…, Simplifying the management of child wasting, Early in the pandemic essential nutrition services were reduced by more than 30 per cent in the region. Management of child wasting involves health workers finding children in their homes, communities and clinics before they become too sick. Home visits and weekly visits to clinics by families to receive therapeutic foods were almost stopped…, Mother or family MUAC (mid-upper arm circumference), The MUAC tape is an easy way of assessing a child’s nutrition status by measuring the arm. Parents are trained to measure MUAC, leading to earlier detection of faltering growth and seeking treatment, more family involvement and, in the case of COVID-19, less direct contact and risk to health workers. In Indonesia, UNICEF piloted ‘Mother MUAC’ in…, Involving Community Health Workers, Another key change was to enable key tasks in caring for children with wasting to be undertaken by community workers who work directly in communities and are more accessible to families rather than health facility-based workers which involves families walking to their closest health centre. These changes were conducted in Indonesia, Philippines…
East Asia and Pacific
