Malnutrition News and Research

RSS

Malnutrition is a condition which occurs when there is a deficiency of certain vital nutrients in a person’s diet. The deficiency fails to meet the demands of the body leading to effects on the growth, physical health, mood, behaviour and other functions of the body. Malnutrition commonly affects children and the elderly.

Ethiopia reduced child mortality rate by more than half over past 20 years

Ethiopia has reduced its child mortality rates by more than half since 1990, from about 20 percent to 8.8 percent, "through campaigns to increase the number of health workers and clinics throughout the country, government and aid officials said on Friday," Reuters reports.

14 Nov 2011

Olfactory sensory neurons in older people show unexpected response to odor

Scientists studying how the sense of smell changes as people age, found that olfactory sensory neurons in those 60 and over showed an unexpected response to odor that made it more difficult to distinguish specific smells, putting them at greater risk from dangerous chemicals and poor nutrition.

11 Nov 2011

Brazil leading fight against hunger, WFP head says

"Brazil is a world leader in the fight against hunger and its experience can be shared with other countries, visiting World Food Programme [WFP] chief Josette Sheeran said Monday ... in the northeastern city of Salvador while inaugurating a local branch of a newly established Center of Excellence Against Hunger based in the capital Brasilia," Agence France-Presse reports.

9 Nov 2011

South Korea considering food assistance for North Korea, official says

"Signaling South Korea may be attempting to cool tensions with its neighbor, Seoul has vowed to actively review sending humanitarian aid to North Korea through third channels," CNN reports.

8 Nov 2011

MILV subsidiary acquires formula to restore proper kidney function

Nature's Bioceuticals, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mistral Ventures Inc. announced that it has executed the formal closing documents and acquired the chronic kidney disease formula. This formula was developed to restore proper kidney function.

7 Nov 2011

Baxter launches NUMETA emulsion for infusion in Europe

Baxter International Inc. announced today the European launch of NUMETA (emulsion for infusion).

From Baxter International Inc. 4 Nov 2011

Climate change, environmental destruction threaten improvements among world's poorest, UNDP report warns

"Unchecked environmental destruction will halt -- or even reverse -- the huge improvements seen in the living conditions of the world's poorest people in recent decades," the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) warns in its 2011 Human Development report, which was released on Wednesday, the Guardian reports.

4 Nov 2011

VOA News program examines international humanitarian aid in Horn of Africa

The VOA News audio program "Explorations" on Tuesday discussed international humanitarian aid in the Horn of Africa.

3 Nov 2011

UNICEF asks donors to fully fund request to assist North Koreans facing malnutrition

"Millions of children and women of child-bearing age in North Korea face malnutrition which can leave them at higher risk of death or disease, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Tuesday," Reuters reports.

3 Nov 2011

Upcoming G20 Summit presents 'critical opportunity' to address food security crisis

In a post in the Chicago Council on Global Affairs' "Global Food For Thought" blog, Adam Taylor, vice president of advocacy at World Vision, writes that the Group of 20 (G20) Summit in Cannes, France, next week "provides a critical opportunity for President Obama to galvanize G20 leadership in addressing the mounting crisis of food security -- the lack of reliable, nutritious food for the world's poorest people."

1 Nov 2011

Child mortality declining in refugee camp in Ethiopia

In the clinic of Hilaweyn, one of four camps at Ethiopia's Dollo Ado complex for Somali refugees seeking relief from famine and poor security conditions, "[a] massive infusion of humanitarian resources ... appears to be turning the tide" against child mortality, according to Doctors Without Borders, which operates the clinic, VOA News reports.

31 Oct 2011

Renowned obstetrician receives March of Dimes 2011 Agnes Higgins award

A highly renowned obstetrician, professor and researcher who showed that babies born to obese and diabetic women have a higher risk of becoming overweight and developing diabetes or other metabolic health problems later in life, received the March of Dimes 2011 Agnes Higgins award for outstanding achievement in the field of maternal-fetal nutrition.

31 Oct 2011

U.N. officials warn Yemen facing humanitarian, health disasters

High-level officials from UNICEF and the World Food Programme (WFP) this week warned that "routine immunization of children has dropped by 40 percent in some areas of Yemen, leading to outbreaks of polio and measles and reflecting a growing collapse of public services in a country that is on the brink of a humanitarian disaster," IRIN reports.

27 Oct 2011

VitaYeast project to curb global malnutrition

Any way you slice it, bread that contains critical nutrients could help combat severe malnutrition in impoverished regions. That is the goal of a group of Johns Hopkins University undergraduate students who are using synthetic biology to enhance common yeast so that it yields beta carotene, the orange substance that gives carrots their color. When it's eaten, beta-carotene turns into vitamin A.

27 Oct 2011

MSF suspends measles vaccination campaign in Mogadishu area because of violence

Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) last week cut short a three-week measles vaccination campaign intended to reach 35,000 children in the Daynile area near the Somali capital Mogadishu, after intense fighting erupted between the militant group al-Shabab and forces of Somalia's Transitional National Government, backed by the African Union Mission in Somalia, VOA News reports.

24 Oct 2011

E-voucher program providing food to malnourished Zimbabweans living with HIV, TB

An electronic voucher system, introduced by the World Food Programme (WFP) and implemented by the health ministry and non-governmental organizations, is helping Zimbabweans living with HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis (TB) and their families obtain food and fight malnutrition, PlusNews reports.

22 Oct 2011

Emergency humanitarian response in Horn of Africa must shift to community development

Though emergency humanitarian assistance has helped keep people alive in the Horn of Africa, "this effort is not sustainable," David Morley, president and CEO of UNICEF Canada, writes in a Globe and Mail opinion piece.

20 Oct 2011

Climate change could be detrimental to global health, conference attendees say

Environmental health experts, scientists and government officials attending a conference in London sponsored by the British Medical Journal on Monday "issued a statement warning that climate change could not only bring a global health catastrophe but could threaten global stability and security as well, a journal release said," UPI.com reports.

19 Oct 2011

FDA clears Cook Medical's Evolution Duodenal Controlled-Release Stent

Cook Medical announced today that its Evolution Duodenal Controlled-Release Stent was recently granted 510(k) clearance by the Food & Drug Administration.

18 Oct 2011

WHO to offer new guidelines for food aid, recommends 'tighter nutritional standards'

The WHO said Thursday that "it plans to recommend tighter nutritional standards in food aid for young children, a move activists say is necessary to improve donations from countries such as the United States," the Associated Press/Washington Post reports.

15 Oct 2011