Based on the IPC AMN results in 2022, 2, 276, 361 million less than 5 years children are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition with more than 500,000 severely malnourished and among them around 60,000 will have serious co-morbidities being in the need lifesaving interventions. To save the lives of those sickest children, WHO has the lead in health and a key partner in nutrition supports local authorities for targeted lifesaving response and preventive measures into health system service delivery across hospitals in Yemen to provide safe critical medical and nutritional care in Therapeutic feeding centers (TFCs) to reduce less than 5 years mortality.
The support in TFCs is not exclusive to life-saving services but also extends to provide preventive measure through extensive infant and young child feeding counselling for caregivers to:
protect and promote breastfeeding and appropriate complementary feeding;
prevent relapses and similar episodes in children within the family; and
promote caregivers health and nutrition care seeking behavior for children less than 5 years for healthy growth.
WHO ensures the provision of medical and non-medical supplies to all centers, running costs and referral cost payment for caregivers to avoid or reduce out-of-pocket payment and improve maternal compliance with treatment.
From January to Aug 2023, performance indicators in WHO-supported therapeutic feeding centers were as below:
Number of admitted children = 18,737
Percentage of children under-6 months = 16% (3,031)
Percentage of stabilized and referred to OTP = 96% (16,906)
Percentage of deaths = 1% (172)
Number of caregivers benefiting from infant and young child feeding counselling sessions in TFCs = 18,737
Percentage of relapse = 2% (368)
Linking with referral pediatric ward for the most serious cases and undernutrition with chronic morbidities, 30,595 children affected by acute malnutrition were admitted pediatric ward in January-Aug 2023
Nutrition surveillance
Nutritional assessment in the nutrition surveillance system is normally performed through the measurement of child’s weight, height/length, measurement of mid upper arm circumference, age, hemoglobin level, breastfeeding status, and oedema. It is a Facility-based surveillance system, established mainly in district hospitals across the country and through capacitating some mobile teams. The system provides the proportions of children under five years found suffering from any forms of malnutrition, out of the total children screened. The results only reflect the status of children who have attended the health facility or screening sites in the month under review. The system tracks 4 out of 6 global core nutrition indicators: wasting ,stunting, exclusive breastfeeding, and anaemia.
A monthly produced bulletin is widely shared with all stakeholders at national, regional, and global level for information sharing and to support decision-making.
For the month of Dec:
97,909 were screened with 20 % under 6 months of age.
28% were found suffering from wasting and referred to the appropriate nutrition programmes, Hodeidah has the highest proportions of acute malnutrition (43%).
51% were underweight.
Chronic malnutrition (stunting) remains of high concern affecting 44% of screened children and reflected in high proportions in 176 districts.
Anemia found in 19 % of children 6-59 months screened for anemia.
Exclusive breastfeeding among infants under 6 months of age shows very low average rates 13% which still lags far behind the WHO global targets 2025 (at least 50%) suggesting causal linkages between sub-optimal breastfeeding practices and high levels of acute and chronic malnutrition.
