The Pocket Book is for use by doctors nurses and other health workers who are responsible for the care of young children at the first level referral hospitals. This second edition is based on evidence from several WHO updated and published clinical guidelines. It is for use in both inpatient and outpatient care in small hospitals with basic laboratory facilities and essential medicines. In some settings these guidelines can be used in any facilities where sick children are admitted for inpatient care. The Pocket Book is one of a series of documents and tools that support the Integrated Managem.
The evaluation of reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health (RMNCH) by the Disease Control Priorities, Third Edition (DCP3) focuses on maternal conditions, childhood illness, and malnutrition. Specifically, the chapters address acute illness and undernutrition in children, principally under age 5. It also covers maternal mortality, morbidity, stillbirth, and influences to pregnancy and pre-pregnancy. Volume 3 focuses on developments since the publication of DCP2 and will also include the transition to older childhood, in particular, the overlap and commonality with the child development volume. The DCP3 evaluation of these conditions produced three key findings: 1. There is significant difficulty in measuring the burden of key conditions such as unintended pregnancy, unsafe abortion, nonsexually transmitted infections, infertility, and violence against women. 2. Investments in the continuum of care can have significant returns for improved and equitable access, health, poverty, and health systems. 3. There is a large difference in how RMNCH conditions affect different income groups; investments in RMNCH can lessen the disparity in terms of both health and financial risk.
More children born today will survive to adulthood than at any time in history. It is now time to emphasize health and development in middle childhood and adolescence--developmental phases that are critical to health in adulthood and the next generation. Child and Adolescent Health and Development explores the benefits that accrue from sustained and targeted interventions across the first two decades of life. The volume outlines the investment case for effective, costed, and scalable interventions for low-resource settings, emphasizing the cross-sectoral role of education. This evidence base can guide policy makers in prioritizing actions to promote survival, health, cognition, and physical growth throughout childhood and adolescence.
One in three preschool children in developing countries is undernourished. Consequently, they are likely to have impaired immune systems, poor cognitive development, low productivity as adults, and susceptibility to diet-related chronic diseases such as hypertension and coronary heart disease later in life. Undernourished female preschoolers are likely to grow into undernourished young women who are more likely to give birth to babies who are undernourished even before they are born, thus perpetuating the intergenerational transmission of deprivation. This report sheds light on some of the main causes of child malnutrition, projects how many children are likely to be malnourished in the year 2020 given current trends, and identifies priority actions for reducing malnutrition most quickly in the coming decades.
Current data and trends in morbidity and mortality for the sub-Saharan Region as presented in this new edition reflect the heavy toll that HIV/AIDS has had on health indicators, leading to either a stalling or reversal of the gains made, not just for communicable disorders, but for cancers, as well as mental and neurological disorders.
This book provides clear, concise and practical guidelines for treating severely malnourished children successfully, taking into account the limited resources of many hospitals and health units in developing countries, and consistent with other WHO publications. It aims to help improve the quality of inpatient care and so prevent unnecessary deaths, and hospitals which have used these guidelines have reported substantial reductions in mortality rates.
Malnutrition caused by deficiencies of vitamins and minerals - also called hidden hunger - impairs both the intellectual and physical development of a child. Due to the absence of clinical symptoms and assessments, no intervention can be staged. The tragedy is that this, in turn, decreases the child’s chance to escape from poverty. This book looks at malnutrition in high-income countries, the nutrition transition and nutritional deficiencies in low-income countries, consequences of hidden hunger, and interventions to improve nutrition security. Written by leading experts in the field, it clearly stresses that national governments and international organizations must make malnutrition one of their top priorities in order to provide children with optimal conditions for a healthy future.
Considering the detrimental environmental impact of current food systems, and the concerns raised about their sustainability, there is an urgent need to promote diets that are healthy and have low environmental impacts. These diets also need to be socio-culturally acceptable and economically accessible for all. Acknowledging the existence of diverging views on the concepts of sustainable diets and healthy diets, countries have requested guidance from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) on what constitutes sustainable healthy diets. These guiding principles take a holistic approach to diets; they consider international nutrition recommendations; the environmental cost of food production and consumption; and the adaptability to local social, cultural and economic contexts. This publication aims to support the efforts of countries as they work to transform food systems to deliver on sustainable healthy diets, contributing to the achievement of the SDGs at country level, especially Goals 1 (No Poverty), 2 (Zero Hunger), 3 (Good Health and Well-Being), 4 (Quality Education), 5 (Gender Equality) and 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production) and 13 (Climate Action).
Malnutrition refers to deficiencies, excesses, or imbalances in a person''s intake of energy and/or nutrients. Child malnutrition, in all its forms, includes undernutrition, which includes wasting (low weight-for-height), stunting (low height-for-age) and underweight (low weight-for-age), micronutrient-related malnutrition (a lack of important vitamins and minerals) or micronutrient excess, overweight, obesity, and resulting diet-related non-communicable diseases. Malnutrition is one of the most important factors for improper physical and mental development of children. One in every five children in the developing world is malnourished, and poor nutrition is associated with half of all child deaths worldwide. The problem of low or excessive body weight concerns countries with different levels of socio-economic development. This is a medical, social, and economic issue. Every country in the world is affected by one or more forms of malnutrition. Combating malnutrition in all its forms is one of the greatest global health challenges. Infants, children and adolescents are at particular risk of malnutrition. In children, malnutrition has particularly significant health consequences during both early development and adulthood. Malnutrition endangers children''s survival, health, growth and development, slows national progress towards the developmental goals and thus diminishes the strength and capacity of nation. Malnutrition in terms of undernutrition is substantially higher in rural than in urban areas and children from indigenous populations often have the poorest nutritional status. The developmental, economic, social, and medical impacts of the global burden of malnutrition are serious and lasting for all involved including individuals and their families, communities and countries. Poor nutrition during the early years of life can also have severe consequences for subsequent skeletal and immunological development. Studies have demonstrated that undernutrition is not caused by food insecurity alone. Other factors range from the length of the breastfeeding period and the availability of milk oligosaccharides, pathogen exposure, and enteric dysfunction marked by villus atrophy and loss of gut barrier function. Differences in the succession of microbial establishment and maturity might contribute to family discordances in nutritional status. Childhood obesity is one of the most serious public health challenges of the 21st century. The problem is global and is steadily affecting many low- and middle-income countries, particularly in urban settings. Its prevalence has increased at an alarming rate. Globally, in 2016, the number of overweight children under the age of five is estimated to be over 41 million. Almost half of all overweight children under 5 lived in Asia. Overweight and obesity have been linked to adverse psychological and physical outcomes during childhood and continuing into adolescence and adulthood. The association between overweight and obesity with psychosocial problems (anxiety, depression and negative self-image), health problems (diabetes and cardiovascular events) and impaired social, educational and economic productivity has been well documented. Moreover, the negative impact of being underweight, overweight, or obese on the health and development of children and adolescents can also extend into adulthood, increasing the risk of chronic non-communicable diseases and disability. Overweight and obesity, as well as their related diseases, are largely preventable. Therefore prevention of childhood obesity is a high priority. The mechanism of development of obesity is not fully understood and it is believed to be a disorder with multiple causes. Environmental factors, lifestyle preferences, and cultural environment play pivotal roles in the rising prevalence of obesity worldwide. In general, overweight and obesity are assumed to be the result of an increase in caloric and fat intake. On the other hand, there are supporting evidence that excessive sugar intake by soft drink, increased portion size, and steady decline in physical activity have been playing major roles in the rising rates of obesity all around the world. Nutritional assessmentis the interpretation of anthropometric, biochemical, clinical and dietary data to determine whether a person or groups of people are well nourished or malnourished (over-nourished or under-nourished). Research can be aimed at identifying the various social, cultural, political, and economic factors of nutrition in order to fully understand the underlying causes of malnutrition. The social determinants of malnutrition can be explored through both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Furthermore, exploring the issues of food security, dietary diversity, and infant-feeding practices can provide a comprehensive understanding of a population''s nutritional status.
An important, hopeful book that looks at the urgent problem of childhood malnutrition worldwide and the revolutionary progress being made to end it. A healthy Earth requires healthy children. Yet nearly one-fourth of the world’s children are stunted physically and mentally due to a lack of food or nutrients. These children do not die but endure a lifetime of diminished potential. During the past thirty years, says Sharman Russell, we have seen a revolution in how we treat these sick children and in how—with a new understanding of the human body and approach to nutrition, and new ways to reach out to hungry mothers and babies—we have gone from unwittingly killing severely malnourished children to bringing them back to health through the “miracle” of ready-to-eat therapeutic food. Intertwined with stories of scientists and nutrition experts on the front lines of finding ways to end malnutrition for good, Russell writes of her travels to Malawi, one of the poorest and least-developed countries in the world and also the site of pathbreaking, cutting-edge research into childhood malnutrition. (Eighty percent of Malawians are farmers subsisting on less than an acre of land and coping with erratic weather patterns due to global warming; fifty percent live below the poverty line; and forty-two percent of Malawi’s children are affected by a lack of food or nutrients.) As she writes of her personal exploration of new friendships and insights in a country known as “the warm heart of Africa,” Russell describes the programs that are working best to reduce childhood stunting and explores how malnutrition in children is connected to climate change, how vitamins and minerals are preventing these harmful effects, why the empowerment of women is the single most effective factor in eliminating childhood malnutrition, and what the costs of ending childhood malnutrition are. Sharman Russell, much-admired writer of luminous prose and humane heart, whose writing has been called, “elegant” (The Economist) and “extraordinarily well-crafted, far-reaching, and heart-wrenching” (Booklist), winner of the John Burroughs Medal for distinguished natural history writing, has written an illuminating, inspiring book that makes clear the promise of what is today, gratefully, within our grasp.
