Clinic data shows rising malnutrition in kids

There appears to be evidence of rising malnutrition among children in Swaziland, according to preliminary findings of nutritional surveillance by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF). In its latest situation report the World Food Programme noted that the surveillance, undertaken at health clinics during March, indicated an approximate 10 percent acute malnutrition rate in children visiting the clinics. "Compared to a similar survey carried out at the household level in November 2002, the results indicate a rise in malnutrition levels. However, UNICEF believes the March figures may have come from an already vulnerable group of children. The survey was carried out prior to the start of WFP's corn-soya blend clinic feeding programme, and the impact of the programme is therefore not yet visible," WFP said. UNICEF's officer-in-charge in Swaziland, Satu Pehu-Voima, stressed that "the data is not from a survey, but data collected through clinics, through regular attendance (surveillance)". "The data is from March and April 2003. Supplementary feeding through clinics started late March. [So] we may see some impact, hopefully, from that in the [nutritional] data that is being collected now in June," he said. The surveillance report noted that "malnutrition remains consistently high in the age group 12-23 months".