UNICEF Director calls Stunting the “Crisis You’ve Never Heard Of”

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Anthony Lake, the executive director of UNICEF, has just published a great opinion piece about stunting, or chronic child malnutrition. You can read the full piece here.

In short, he reminds us that stunting is a condition which affects 180 million children around the world and which, nevertheless, most of us have “never heard of”. Stunting is a smoldering condition, one which is difficult to detect clinically without using formal growth metrics. However, although children with stunting appear, at first glance, to be normal, they will have reduced learning, reduced cognitive ability, and reduced adult earning potential. They will also be more susceptible to acute illnesses, such as diarrhea and respiratory infections, during childhood.

Posted by Peter_Rohloff on Feb 1 2012. Filed under Hub Selects, Infant & Child Health, Malnutrition. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry