Malnutrition

In connection with the “hunger in the world”, to see the article Malnutrition.

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The malnutrition indicates a pathological state caused by the deficiency or the excess of one or more Nutriments.

An unsuited food supply can come from a Nourriture in bad quantity (caloric intake insufficient or, on the contrary, excessive) or from bad quality (nutritional Carences or excess of grease S…) ; other factors, in particular psychological and pathological, also intervene.

In the Developing country, the major nutritional problem is the Sous-alimentation , due to an insufficient caloric intake, and being able to lead for example to the Kwashiorkor. But everywhere in the world, various forms of malnutrition exist, leading in particular on the Obésité and serious deficiencies. Malnutrition was thus called the “invisible hunger” or “hunger hidden” ( hidden hunger in English) by the the United Nations, affecting two billion people suffering from deficiencies out of rock salt and vitamins, being able to cause fatal diseases.

Definition

Malnutrition must be defined like a pathology, and not like a state. They are a systemic pathology to the multiple consequences and etiologies such varied. The idea of a separation between a quantitative and qualitative approach is at the same time obsolete and reducing.

Malnutrition, that it is in the approach that propose the the World Health Organization of it, the emergency humanitarian organizations devoting itself to it, or the various studies carried out on the subject, can be the consequence of several factors, generally associated. The food deficiencies, that they are quantitative or qualitative (and they are generally both), are a very frequent cause leading to a state of malnutrition. However, other factors enter very often concerned.

One will be able to take several examples to illustrate what malnutrition represents:

  • the Niger, be 2005: the principal encountered cases of malnutrition are primarily due to a major deficiency in food supply, because of prolongation of the dryness and the invasion of the cultivable zones by locusts, these two causes having led to largely insufficient harvests.
  • the Liberia, 2004-2005: the food supply is sufficient for the populations, at the same time thanks to considerable harvests and imports, like thanks to regular food distributions by WFP. However, the rates of malnutrition are important, especially in the urban areas. The identified main issue is due primarily to unsuited practices of care, whose causes are multiple. The mothers are not able to provide to their child effective care, because of a cognitive deficit, post-traumatic disorders, of a pathological relation with the child, etc
  • the Afghanistan, 2002-2005: if the food deficiencies play a big role in malnutrition present in this country, it was noted that many children refused the care (food being included/understood here in the care) which was lavished to them, because of an important psychological traumatism. This phenomenon of refusal to feed at summer noted in Rwanda after the genocide, and in much of refugee camps and moved whose residents had had to live events traumatisants.

These some examples show that a purely food approach of malnutrition could not be sufficient, and the majority of the international actors of fight against malnutrition had to adapt their catch of load by developing parallel programs, energy of the psychosocial stimulation of the malnourris to their psychological assumption of responsibility.

Same manner, one will be able to speak about malnutrition vis-a-vis the problem of the Obésité. There still, it would be reducing to regard a food supply unsuited as its only etiology. There exists obesity related to genetic factors leading to a surabsorption of the nutrients, or related to an anatomical or physiological cause acquired (turbid assets of the operation of the bodies of digestion, or mobility, for example). But the maladjustment of the food supply is here often in itself a consequence of a psychological disorder.

Consequences: state of malnutrition in the world

In 2006, more than 3,5 billion people suffer from iron deficiency, 2 billion is in danger of deficiency out of iodine and 200 million preschool childs is victims of insufficiency in vitamin A.

In the developing countries, the food insufficiencies cause diseases like the Kwashiorkor, the Anémie (which tackle the blood system and prevent the concentration), the Rachitisme (which prevents the normal development of the bones of the child) or the Cécité (caused by deficiencies in Vitamine has). The ratio of 2004 of UNICEF and the the World Bank draw up a terrifying assessment: the deficiencies in Fer among the babies from 6 to 24 months assign the mental development from 40 to 60% of the natives under development; the deficiencies in Iode made move back the intellectual ability of these countries from 10 to 15%, and cause the birth of 18 million mental handicapped children per annum; the lack of Vitamine has results in the death of a million children each year.

In the adults, most affected are often the women: the anemia caused by the lack of iron results in the death of 60  000 young women during their pregnancy or their childbirth; the lack of folic acid causes a death by cardiac disease on ten. The deficiencies are added and make the organization more vulnerable to other diseases. The economic impact is enormous, the fall of energy associated with the deficiencies causing a fall with 2% with GNP in the most affected countries

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