Save millions children life for 2-3 years
29.09.09 - Nigeria - Author: asia news ia - Comments: (0)
Tags: malnutrition
In Nigeria so many people dying because they not enough foods. Difficult to growth foods because Weather and no rain to plant a tree.
Every year, malnutrition kills five million children - that’s one child every six seconds. But now, the Nobel Prize-winning relief group “Doctors Without
Borders” says it finally has something that can save millions of these children.
“It’s a revolution in nutritional affairs,” says Dr. Milton Tectonidis, the chief nutritionist for Doctors Without Borders.
“Now we have something. It is like an essential medicine. In three weeks, we can cure a kid that is looked like they’re half dead. We can cure them just like
an antibiotic. It’s just, boom! It’s a spectacular response,” Dr. Tectonidis says.
The Plumpy’nut product is a high protein and high energy peanut-based paste in a foil wrapper. It tastes slightly sweeter than peanut butter. It is
categorized by the WHO as a Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF).
Plumpy’nut requires no water preparation or refrigeration, making it easy to deploy in difficult conditions to treat severe acute malnutrition. However it
must be used under medical supervision and the nutritional status of the children has to be clearly identified by a doctor or a nutritionist.
It has a 2 year shelf life when unopened. The product was inspired by the popular Nutella spread. It is manufactured by Nutriset, a French company based
in Normandy Rouen, fully dedicated to humanitarian relief, specialized in products to treat malnutrition, used by humanitarian stakeholders (international
organizations and non-governmental organizations basically) for distribution. The ingredients are: peanut paste, vegetable oil, powdered milk, powdered
sugar, vitamins, and minerals, combined in a foil pouch. Each 92g pack provides 500 kcal or 2.1 MJ.