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WHO launches malnutrition initiative
The World Health Organization (WHO) has just launched an information system that is entirely web-based, in the hopes that it will prevent millions from suffering various levels of malnutrition. With this web based system, all ranges of malnutrition, from severely under nourished to severely obese, will be accounted for.
Being an area full of conflicting information and contradictory advice, the challenge of fighting malnutrition comes from eliminating all confusion. The e-Library of Evidence for Nutrition Actions (eLENA) removes the inconsistency standards and sets authoritative guidelines, says the WHO’s nutritional director Francesco Branca.
Speaking in Geneva ahead of the 10th August launch, Branca told journalists "What we need to do is to make clear what effective interventions are.”
eLENA contains the three key forms of malnutrition: under-nutrition, vitamin and mineral deficiencies, and overweight/obesity, but also delves into other types.
“Several billion people are affected by one or more types of malnutrition,” said Ala Alwan, WHO's assistant director-general of Non-Communicable Diseases and Mental Health. “Countries need access to the science and evidence-informed guidance to reduce the needless death and suffering associated with malnutrition,” he said.
It is estimated that 115 million pre-school children worldwide are at least underweight, while 190 million pre-school children are affected by vitamin A deficiency. 1.6 billion people have anaemia, mostly due to an iron deficiency. It is estimated that an average of 1.5 billion people are overweight, of whom 500 million are obese, according to WHO figures.
The eLENA project is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Canada-based Micronutrient Initiative and the government of Luxembourg.
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