The summit of the World Health Organization (WHO) for the "Dietary Management of Moderate Malnutrition" starts in Geneva today, September 30th. According to Doctors Without Borders, the WHO’s meeting, set up to develop new recommendations on the management of malnutrition, "may have an even bigger impact on the quality of food aids and nutritional programmes for newborns and children". Doctors Without Borders asks WHO’s experts to grasp this opportunity to elevate the level of the standards of food aids and of the programmes for the management of malnutrition. In the areas chronically affected by malnutrition, such as South Asia, the Sub-Saharian area of Sahel and the Horn of Africa, many families cannot afford food and live on a cereal mush lacking many essential nutriments. However, today, even the food aids supplied by agencies and international donors are mainly based on cereals. On the other hand, they do not include food originating from animals, such as milk, containing many nutrition elements needed by children. "We would never give our children just cereals; why do we accept a double standard for the food aids destined to developing countries?", stated Von Schoen-Angerer, executive director of the campaign for the access to DWB’s drugs. (To be continued)
