Malnutrition News and Research

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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.

Nepal looks to improved cooking stoves to improve health, environment

Inter Press Service examines how Nepal is combating the poor health effects of open-fire cooking stoves by replacing them with improved cooking stoves.

10 Aug 2011

Positive data from Lexicon LX1032 Phase 2 study on carcinoid syndrome

Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering breakthrough treatments for human disease, announced positive, top-line proof-of-concept data from its recently completed Phase 2 study in carcinoid syndrome with LX1032, telotristat etiprate. Carcinoid syndrome is a chronic condition caused by neuroendocrine tumors that usually originate from the gastrointestinal tract.

9 Aug 2011

Seattle Times examines Gates Foundation's efforts to enhance vitamins in crops for Africans

The Seattle Times on Sunday examined efforts by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation "to boost the levels of vitamins and minerals in crops many Africans rely on for the bulk of their diets."

9 Aug 2011

Obama administration issues new guidance on aid to drought-stricken Somalia

The Obama administration on Tuesday issued new guidance stating "the U.S. would not prosecute relief agencies for delivering aid to parts of Somalia controlled by the Islamist insurgent group al-Shabab, despite concerns that unrestricted aid in the failed state would be diverted to the wrong hands," Inter Press Service reports.

4 Aug 2011

'Political resolve' needed to end world hunger

"[A]s the worst drought in 60 years again devastates the Horn of Africa, throwing as many as 12 million into desperate hunger … there are hopeful signs that today's drought need not result in the tens of thousands of deaths that we saw in earlier decades," World Food Programme Executive Director Josette Sheeran writes in the Reuters blog "The Great Debate."

4 Aug 2011

U.N. issues appeal for air cargo space, warns about rising child mortality among Somalis in Kenya

UNICEF on Tuesday "appealed to the air transport sector to provide free and discounted cargo space to bring emergency food supplies into the region," the U.N. News Centre reports.

4 Aug 2011

New approach reduces cyanogen, enhances nutritional value in root crop

Researchers working at The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center have made an another advancement in their efforts to improve the root crop cassava which is a major source of calories to 700 million people worldwide, primarily living in the developing world.

3 Aug 2011

Famine will spread in Somalia unless 'massive' response mounted, U.N. says

The drought and hunger crisis in the Horn of Africa is getting worse, and unless there is "a massive increase in the response, the famine will spread to five or six more regions" in Somalia, Valerie Amos, the U.N. under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, told reporters on Monday, Reuters reports.

3 Aug 2011

ADA releases new position paper, 'Nutrition Intervention in the Treatment of Eating Disorders'

As one of the most complicated sets of illnesses to treat, eating disorders have mental health, as well as medical and nutritional, aspects. While treatment by a multidisciplinary health-care team is considered the best practice, there is considerable debate over how to most effectively treat eating disorders and who should be on a treatment team.

2 Aug 2011

Disparities persist despite insurance

A pair of studies highlights how health disparities continue to take shape and unravels some of the factors that are involved in differences in health outcomes.

1 Aug 2011

Physicians to provide high-quality care, training to medically underserved community

Today, the first class of Texas Children's Global Health Corps will depart Houston for assignment in Africa. This talented team of pediatricians and family doctors will provide medical care and treatment to thousands of children and families affected by serious or life-threatening medical conditions, including sickle cell disease, malaria, tuberculosis, malnutrition, cancer and HIV/AIDS.

30 Jul 2011

Niger facing high child malnutrition rates

While the world focuses on the famine in East Africa, warnings about high child malnutrition rates in Niger appear "to have gone unnoticed by the international media," AlertNet reports.

29 Jul 2011

UNICEF in new African vaccine drive

UNICEF (UN Children's Fund), has launched a massive vaccination campaign across the Horn of Africa to protect 2.5 million children against diseases like measles, which can be deadly for malnourished children. This drive would include a strategy to vaccinate every child in Somalia (under the age of 15) against measles.

27 Jul 2011

Scientists identify possible genetic variations linked to eating disorders

A substantial number of people with eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa have a chronic course. They are severely underweight and have a high likelihood of dying from malnutrition. No treatment has been found that helps people who are chronically ill. Now, a new study sheds light on the reason that some people have poor outcome.

27 Jul 2011

Nearly 720,000 children are at risk of death across the Horn of Africa

With famine now declared in two regions of Southern Somalia and malnutrition rates at emergency levels in arid and semi-arid regions across the Horn of Africa, nearly 720,000 children are at risk of death without urgent assistance.

25 Jul 2011

U.N. increases humanitarian aid need to $4.9B for 2011

The U.N. on Wednesday said during a donor meeting in Geneva that "it needs $7.9 billion this year, $500 million more than it had originally sought, to fund relief operations in the face of spreading humanitarian crises in Africa and Asia," Reuters reports (7/20).

22 Jul 2011

Somali President issues appeal for famine assistance

Somali President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed on Wednesday "issued an urgent appeal for international aid" for famine assistance in his country during an exclusive interview with CNN at his residence in Mogadishu. "The situation is very severe. The conditions are very harsh," he said (7/21).

22 Jul 2011

IRIN reports on challenges to fighting child malnutrition in Nepal

IRIN examines the "silent epidemic" of child malnutrition in Nepal, where nearly half of all children under five have stunted growth and 13 percent of children over six months and under five years old have moderate or severe acute malnutrition, a measurement known as global acute malnutrition.

22 Jul 2011

Attention must be paid to famine early warning systems

Early warnings about rising malnutrition, drought and possible famine in the Horn of Africa "went unheeded" for the past year, but "[w]hat is the point of an early warning system if nobody is listening?" a Globe and Mail editorial asks.

21 Jul 2011

GlobalPost examines GHI implementation in Guatemala

GlobalPost examines the prevalence of chronic malnutrition in Guatemala, which is one of the countries targeted by the Obama administration's Global Health Initiative (GHI). It also looks at how the GHI is being implemented in that country.

20 Jul 2011