Battling Malnutrition Problems

(ANGOP May 12)   The UNICEF (The United Nations Children's Fund) representative in Angola, Koenraad Vanormelingen, released current research results that show that 8.2% of Angolan children under 5 years old, a total in the order of 300,000 children, suffer from acute malnutrition.

According to representative Vanormelingen, these country totals are the major cause of morbidity and mortality in Angolan children under five years of age.  These research reflect that in other lessor levels of malnutrition; some 15.6% or one million children suffer from the basic level of malnutrition, while some 500,000 children suffer from chronic malnutrition.

The representative proclaimed that these statistics illustrate a problem of a lack of complete nutrition, not simply the problem of the lack of access to macro nutrients such as protein and sugar.

UNICEF defines acute malnutrition as the nutritional deficiencies that produce reduced Weight to Height anthropometric indicators; producing very physically lean or skeletal appearing body frames. Chronic malnutrition is defined as reduced Height to Weight indicators which will produce stunted growth and other physically limiting conditions such as mental development.