UN warns of ‘catastrophic’ child malnutrition due to price hikes, war

LONDON - The cost of lifesaving treatment for the most severely malnourished children is set to jump by up to 16 per cent due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and pandemic disruptions, according to the United Nations’ children’s agency.

The raw ingredients of the ready-to-eat-therapeutic food have leapt in price amid the global food crisis sparked by the war and pandemic, UNICEF said.

Without further funding in the next six months, 600,000 more children may miss out on the essential treatment, which is a high-energy paste made of ingredients including peanuts, oil, sugar and added nutrients.

UNICEF did not specify how much increased spending would be needed to maintain the program.

It said a carton of the specialised nutrition containing 150 packets — enough for 6 to 8 weeks to bring a severely malnourished child back to health — 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 malnutrition, the children’s agency warned in a statement.

“The world is rapidly becoming a virtual tinderbox of preventable child deaths and child suffering from wasting,” said UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell. Severe wasting, when children are too thin for their height, affects 13.6 million children under five years old, and results in one-in-five deaths among this age group.

Even before the war and pandemic, two-in-three did not have access to the therapeutic food needed to save their lives, UNICEF said.