2024-07-08 16:51:17
Within the framework of international law, various instruments have been established that recognize the right to food as an essential human right. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, in its article 25, establishes that “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services.”
The fundamental right to food is inclusive, in that it expresses the need to live healthily and actively and with the means to have regular and permanent access to it.
In this sense, malnutrition in early childhood has, for years, been one of the great challenges that countries around the world have set out to eradicate. The Sustainable Development Goals, especially Goal 2, propose the need to end all forms of hunger and malnutrition by 2030, especially in boys and girls, with the aim of achieving sufficient and nutritious food throughout the year.
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Childhood malnutrition in Neiva
In this regard, Lilibeth Galván, Municipal Health Secretary, indicated: “So far this year, we have 53 minors who were diagnosed with acute malnutrition and of these, we had 447 cases at risk of this problem. These are the children we found on alert, they begin to have a delay in their height and global malnutrition (weight deficiency for age), we had 58 minors.”
The official said that they have found cases of pregnant women who are underweight. “In this quarter, we have 111 pregnant women who already have this problem and we are telling society that breastfeeding is a protective factor to prevent malnutrition in children.”
Ideally, this food should be given to infants up to two years of age.
“We have found that children with this problem of low weight are not breastfed, they are children who are weaned from breastfeeding, and we find parents who are not clear about what foods nourish their children?” revealed the official. It is important to find strategies so that they are fed with legumes, proteins and fruits.
Poverty and lack of food
When asked how a low-income family feeds its children, the official said: “This is a factor that influences, and depending on the value of the family basket, it can be replaced by other food products that are not as expensive, but it is important to prevent malnutrition in children.”
The organization is working with all institutions to prevent children from developing chronic malnutrition and to help them recover from the risk they are currently facing.
And as for the possible causes of why mothers do not breastfeed, the secretary revealed that it is part of the education of the ‘mommy’, “because it is true that breastfeeding has some critical phases, in the initial issue the pain in the nipples, the dependence that babies have. We must raise awareness because when the mother realizes that she keeps a ‘treasure’ there, and that it will allow her to prevent illnesses in the child, it will strengthen his immune system, it will prevent the child from suffering from malnutrition,” emphasized Lilibeth Galván.
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Critical phenomenon in the country
According to the report by the Ombudsman’s Office, entitled; Malnutrition in early childhood: multi-causal analysis, perspectives and challenges, Colombia is not immune to this violation of rights; although different actors such as the State, civil society and decision-makers have had this situation on the public agenda, it is identified that morbidity and mortality due to malnutrition are still a constant in the reality of early childhood in the country.
And according to information from the National Institute of Health, an entity responsible for operating and developing the public health surveillance system, as of April 2024, 9,001 notifications of moderate and severe acute malnutrition in children under 5 years of age were reported.
During 2023, 24,226 notifications were reported, where the work carried out showed 3,031 more cases for 2023 compared to 2022, which represents a percentage variation of 14.3 percent.
Regarding deaths due to malnutrition and associated causes in children under 5 years of age, they show a less uniform behavior. According to figures from the National Institute of Health in the country as of May 8, 2024, 96 notifications are reported, of these 37 are confirmed and 59 are under study as probable, for 2023, 301 confirmed deaths are reported, 46 fewer deaths than in 2022, which presents a percentage variation of 13.3 percent. It is necessary to take into account that 2022 is the year with the highest number of deaths reported in the recent series with 347 notifications.
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Indigenous people at risk
And according to the figures presented above, in 2023, 24,226 cases of moderate and severe acute malnutrition in children under 5 years of age were reported. Of these, 6,418 cases occurred in ethnic populations, where 26.4 percent of the notifications are concentrated. Of the 6,418 cases, 78.5 percent correspond to the indigenous population, 19.7 percent to black, mulatto or Afro-Colombian, 0.7 percent to Raizal, 0.6 percent to Roma-Gypsy and 0.5 percent to Palenquero.
When reviewing the trend by year, it is identified that notifications have increased in the last five years for the indigenous population, compared to the black, mulatto and Afro-Colombian population.
Given that the indigenous population is the one with the highest number of notifications, compared to other ethnic groups, it is identified that, within this group, the people with the highest number of notifications is the Wayuu population, which has a strong presence in the department of La Guajira, a department that in the last five years has led the list of deaths due to malnutrition.
And according to information from the National Institute of Health as of May 11, 2024, 63 cases of children under 5 years of age with moderate and severe acute malnutrition of Venezuelan nationality, 2 cases of Ecuadorian nationality and 1 case of Peruvian and Brazilian nationality have been reported in the country.
Finally, the entity pointed out that from the exercise carried out, it is evident how notifications for acute malnutrition in the country have progressively increased; for the period between 2022 and 2023, an increase to 3,031 notifications is evident for the latter year, which represents a
The figures related in this report, according to the reports of the National Institute of Health in relation to notifications of deaths due to malnutrition, show a notable variability with increases and decreases between 2017 and 2023. During 2023, 301 deaths were confirmed and of these, 171 occurred in the indigenous population. Percentage variation of 14 percent.