U.N. warns of ‘catastrophic’ child malnutrition due to price hikes, Ukraine war

The UN children’s agency has warned that the cost of life-saving treatment for severe child malnutrition is likely to jump up by 16%. The reasons for the same are the pandemic upheaval and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The global food crisis sparked by the pandemic as well as the war has got the prices soaring. Prices of the raw ingredients of the ready-to-eat-therapeutic food have ascended quickly, UNICEF said.

UNICEF has not specified how much-increased spending would be in need to maintain the program. But, in the next six months, without further funding, 600,000 more children may miss out on the essential treatment.

This essential treatment primarily is a high-energy paste made of ingredients including peanuts, oil, sugar, and added nutrients.

UNICEF stated that each carton of the specialized nutrition contains 150 packets that last for 6 to 8 weeks. It is enough to bring a severely malnourished child back to health. Also, a carton goes for about $41 on average.

Alongside the wider pressure on food security, including climate change, the price rise could lead to “catastrophic” levels of severe child malnutrition, warned UNICEF.

Added comment by UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell stated, “The world is rapidly becoming a virtual tinderbox of preventable child deaths and child suffering from wasting.”

When a child is too thin for their height, it’s called severe wasting. It affects 13.6 million children under 5 years old and results in 1-in-5 deaths.

UNICEF added, that even before the pandemic and war, 2-in-3 did not have access to the life-saving therapeutic food.

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