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Unicef warns of a “catastrophic crisis of child malnutrition due to rising food prices”
The war in Ukraine has caused a sharp rise in the prices of some basic foods, such as cereals, which will cause a “catastrophic” crisis of child malnutrition, according to Unicef, the UN children’s agency. The cost of life-saving treatment for children with severe malnutrition is going to increase by 16% as a result of the Russian invasion and the problems arising from the pandemic, according to the agency.
The raw materials with which RUTFs are made (ready-to-use therapeutic food, in its acronym in English), the food packets that are administered to malnourished children, have risen sharply in recent weeks due to the invasion and the global traffic jam derived from the pandemic, says Unicef, which warns that without a new injection of funds in the next six months, 600,000 more children could be left without this treatment against hunger, a paste made with peanuts, oil, sugar and other added nutrients.
According to Unicef, a box with 150 of these food sachets – enough to restore health to a child with severe malnutrition in a period of between six and eight weeks – currently costs 41 dollars (39 euros) and could go up 16%, so the UN agency will need $25 million to cover the price increase.
That price increase, together with other phenomena such as climate change, could lead to “catastrophic” levels of child malnutrition, according to a Unicef note. “The world is fast becoming a virtual tinderbox of preventable child death and suffering,” Unicef Executive Director Catherine Russell said in the note. Severe malnutrition affects some 13.6 million children under the age of five in the world, according to data from the agency. One in five of these children ends up dying. (REUTERS)
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