A million deaths each year worldwide… a silent threat to children, watch out!
YNP:
Stunting poses a silent threat to the world’s children, as it leads to the death of approximately one million children each year before they reach the age of five, becoming the third leading cause of death in this age group.
These shocking results appear in the latest Global Burden of Disease 2023 study, published December 3 in the journal The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health.
Despite significant progress in which stunting-related deaths have declined from 2.75 million cases in 2000 to 880,000 in 2023, the disease burden remains high and is most acute in two regions: sub-Saharan Africa, with 618,000 deaths, and South Asia, with 165,000 cases.
Analysis of indicators shows that underweight constitutes the greatest burden, contributing to 12% of deaths of children under five, followed by wasting at 9%, and finally stunting at 8%. The study also followed higher-than-expected estimates of the number of stunted children worldwide.
The greatest danger is that stunting increases children’s vulnerability to infections and death from common diseases. About 800,000 children died last year from diseases such as lower respiratory infections, diarrhea, malaria and measles, and stunting was a major contributing factor to most of these deaths.
In sub-Saharan Africa, stunting was associated with 77% of deaths from diarrhea and 65% of deaths from respiratory infections among children under five years old. Rates were also high in South Asia, while high-income countries had the lowest rates.
Dr. Bobby Rayner, one of the study participants, explains that the causes of this crisis are interrelated and complex and include malnutrition, food insecurity, the impacts of climate change, lack of sanitation services and armed conflict, making it difficult to adopt a single solution that fits all regions.
The findings reveal that most cases of dwarfism begin to appear in the first three months of a child’s life, highlighting the urgent need for early intervention, even before birth. Researchers also warn of a vicious cycle between wasting and stunting, with each exacerbating the other as the child grows.
Stunting in early life manifests as prenatal problems, while in later stages it may reflect factors such as chronic malnutrition or recurrent infections.
Dr Rainer concludes by emphasizing that reversing the effects of stunting once it has occurred is a difficult task, and that efforts should therefore be directed towards using this recent data to identify areas most at risk, and focusing on early detection and effective intervention before the problem worsens.