Ha Noi (VNA) - Viet Nam is the only developing country coming close to the target of reducing its child malnutrition rate to less than 15 percent by 2015, said officials from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Education Fund (UNICEF).
The target was set by a WHO and UNICEF joint project on fighting undernourishment in children in developing countries.
Compared with other Southeast Asian countries, Viet Nam's malnutrition rate is lower than that of Cambodia and Laos, but higher than that of the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore, said Director of the Health Ministry's Nutrition Institute Nguyen Cong Khan.
However, Khan added that the country's undernourishment rate among children remains high, particularly in northern mountainous areas, the Central Highlands and Northern Central Viet Nam. The malnutrition reduction drive has moved slowly and unsustainably in the southern central and Mekong River Delta provinces due to natural disasters.
According to the Nutrition Institute, more than 1.8 million children nationwide are underweight, over 2.1 million children are shorter than average, and 337,000 suffer from serious malnutrition.
The Institute's director proposed that higher priority be given to mountainous and disadvantaged areas to help increase the proportion of micronutrients in children's diets in these localities.
In addition, he stressed that more informational campaigns should be held to raise people's awareness about the need to improve nutrition quality for children, particularly those aged from six months to three years.
The Nutrition Institution is conducting research on adding micronutrients to certain kinds of foods such as fish sauce, sugar, flour and biscuits.-Enditem
|
|