his file photo taken on October 11, 2016 shows a mother breastfeeding her child who suffers acute malnutrition at the clinic run by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Aweil, northern Bahr al-Ghazal, South Sudan. South Sudan's government said on February 20, 2017, that the country's over three-year war has led to famine in parts of the nation, while nearly half the population was going hungry. Picture: AFP/Albert Gonzalez Farran
Malnutrition, especially in children is a huge concern – not just in South Africa, but worldwide.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) lists malnutrition to include “undernutrition [wasting, stunting, underweight], inadequate vitamins or minerals, being overweight, obesity, and resulting diet-related noncommunicable diseases”.
According to them, in 2022, 2.5 billion adults were overweight, including 890 million who were living with obesity, while 390 million were underweight.
It’s especially concerning when it comes to children, with “149 million children under the age of five estimated to be stunted [too short for age], 45 million to be wasted [too thin for height], and 37 million overweight or living with obesity”.
Unicef chief of health in South Africa Dr Sufang Guo said “prevalence of wasting in children has doubled from 2.5% in 2016, to 5% in 2024 and severe wasted children account for 3.2%”, adding 24% of children who died in SA in 2019 had severe malnutrition.
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It seems malnutrition is a big problem in the Northern Cape with Karen Jooste, DA member in the Northern Cape legislature, saying: “In 2020, the National Institute of Health identified the province as the worst affected by undernutrition in SA, with wasting prevalence at 19% and 18.8% of children being underweight. ”
Jooste’s party insist they “will not rest until the Northern Cape government ensures no child goes to bed hungry and no family suffers the loss of a child due to malnutrition”.
Health department spokesperson Foster Mohale admits the country has a problem, but insists they are “winning” in addressing the situation.
Mohale said: “The severe acute malnutrition case fatality rate (CFR) declined from 11.8% in 2014, to 6.5% in 2024, nationally.
A decline in CFR was also shown in the Free State (12.2%-5.7%), Northern Cape (10.9%-5.1%) and Limpopo (14.6% -6.1%) in 2014 and 2018 respectively.
No child deserves to be subjected to malnutrition. The government must strive to do better.
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