Nutritional “risk situation” among children in eastern Kinshasa

The international NGO, Save the Children, has announced findings from a nutritional survey conducted in mid-April in the Kimbanseke, Lobiko, Mapela and Tshimungu health zones of Masina and Kimbanseke communes of eastern Kinshasa. The study found an overall prevalence of 11 percent acute malnutrition and 2.1 percent severe malnutrition. The report cites a prevalence of global malnutrition exceeding 10 percent as representing a “risk situation” for which supplemental and therapeutic feeding therapies are recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO). The prevalence of global acute malnutrition varied considerably among the four health zones surveyed, ranging from an “acceptable” level of five percent in Kimbanseke, to an “alarming” level of 18.3 percent in Lobiko. Mapela was found to have a rate of 8.5 percent, while Tshimungu was found to have a rate of 11.3 percent. The rate of 18.3 percent global acute malnutrition found in Lobiko was deemed to be “particularly worrying and constitutes a serious problem according to WHO guidelines,” the report said. The study made a number of recommendations, among them publicising results of the study among all interested parties and coordinating an effective response as well as future monitoring; training health personnel to recognise signs of malnutrition and to administer appropriate treatment; and preventing malnutrition through public education about healthy nutrition and sanitation.