Children’s undernutrition is the root cause of around 11 percent of mortality rates among Egyptian children, according to a report released Thursday by the United Nation’s World Food Programme.
The revelation came as part of a study titled “The Cost of Hunger in Africa,” jointly conducted by the Egyptian Cabinet’s Information and Decision Support Center (IDSC) and the WFP.
As many as 81 percent of all cases of child malnutrition or undernutrition and its related pathologies go untreated, according to the study. “51 percent of the health costs associated with undernutrition occur before the child turns 1 year," it added.
The study sets annual costs associated with children malnutrition at LE20.3 billion, or 1.9 percent of GDP.
The study also detects an increase in stunted growth among children compared to the figures from 10 years ago.
Around “41 percent of the adult population in Egypt suffered from [stunted growth] as children,” the joint report says.
The phenomenon, it claims, is responsible for 10 percent of all repetitions in primary schools.
