Date: Tue, 23 Jan 2001 18:19:26 +0300 (BEAUT)
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Subject: AFGHANISTAN: Malnutrition in Mazar [2010123]
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AFGHANISTAN: Almost half of children in Mazar malnourished

ISLAMABAD, 23 January (IRIN) - Thousands of Afghan children face
starvation the United Nations Coordinator for Afghanistan warned on
Tuesday after findings of a nutritional survey by the NGO Action Contre la
Faim (ACF), in collaboration with the World Food Programme (WFP),
concluded that almost half of the children in the northern city of Mazar
were malnourished. 

"The nutritional surveys that are coming out now are especially alarming
as the situation is not even close to being resolved," spokesperson for
the United Nations Coordinator for Afghanistan Stephanie Bunker told IRIN.
"If it is this bad now, the future can only be worse." 

These findings come after a recent nutrition and mortality survey
conducted in remote villages in southern Faryab Province by Medecins sans
Frontieres-Belgium (MSF) uncovered infant mortality rates of over 5 per
10,000 per day. 

The ACF report said that almost 10 percent of the children under 30 months
surveyed suffered from acute malnutrition. It also reported widespread
chronic and severe malnutrition, which results from prolonged inadequate
diet and illness. 

It added that acute malnutrition - a sudden onset condition that can be
brought on by illness - is almost 10 percent among children under 30
months, while the rate of chronic malnutrition among children surveyed, a
long term problem caused by prolonged poor diet and regular illnesses was
found to be 48 percent, and of severe malnutrition almost 20 percent. 

Bunker told IRIN that, if left unchecked, cases of chronic malnutrition
could deteriorate in time and result in severe malnutrition and death. 

"Over the past few years, the under five mortality rate of children in
Afghanistan was estimated to be about 25 percent or one in four deaths. 
Given the present situation, however, it could be much higher," she
warned. 

The ACF report found that 8.8 percent of the children surveyed were newly
displaced into Mazar since the summer by a combination of drought,
fighting, or poverty. 

Although these figures are particularly alarming, they are "low"  compared
to other cities in Afghanistan, such as Kandahar and Kabul, where severe
malnutrition affects over one-quarter of children under five and where
global malnutrition rates range between 50 and 60 percent. 

[ENDS]

[IRIN-Asia: Tel: +92 51 2211 451 Fax: +92 51 2211 450 e-mail:
irin-asia@ocha.unon.org ]


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