How Would You Spend $8 Billion?

I've written previously about malnutrition [http://notes-from-the-congo.blogspot.com/2009/08/let-them-eat-cake.html], but decided to revisit the subject after feeling a bit hungry before lunchtime.

Hunger and malnutrition are not the same thing, of course. Hunger is what I felt before eating a big bowl of cold soba for lunch, and the word can also be applied to describe people who consume fewer than 2,100 calories a day; malnutrition is not merely the consumption of too little food. It is a pathology caused principally by a lack of essential nutrients.

As I've written elsewhere, children (especially under two years old) are the most easily affected by inadequate diets, and when children suffer from acute malnutrition, their immune systems are so impaired that the risks of mortality are greatly increased. Malnutrition is identified in three ways: by weight for height, by measurement of mid-upper arm circumference, or by the presence of edema (bloated feet and/or face).

The fourth and fifth photographs above show feeding schedules for malnourished children. MSF provides patients with a ready-to-use food (RUF) called Plumpy Nut (third photo), the amount of which is prescribed according to the child's weight. The advantages of Plumpy Nut and other RUFs are that they deliver a lot of calories in a small package, contain the full range of nutrients needed by growing children, and come in individual packages, making them easy for children to consume (and making it easier to ensure that the malnourished children – rather than other family members – are the ones consuming them).

The World Health Organization estimates there are 178 million malnourished children around the world. In a 2006 publication, "Ending Child Hunger and Malnutrition Initiative", the World Food Program and UNICEF estimated the cost of effectively addressing malnutrition at $80/family, or $8 billion for 100 million families. On June 16, 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives approved the expenditure of $7.65 billion to respond to the swine flu pandemic, which to date has killed fewer than 3,000 people worldwide.