Africa Knowledge Management Portal
Informing health decisions and actions
Guidelines for the inpatient treatment of severely malnourished children
Health Risk Environment
Food and Nutrition
Description
Every year some 10.6 million children die before they reach their fifth birthday. Seven out of every 10 of these deaths are due to diarrhoea, pneumonia, measles, malaria or malnutrition. The WHO manual Management of Severe Malnutrition: a manual for physicians and other senior health workers and the following companion guidelines have been developed to improve inpatient treatment of severe malnutrition. The WHO/UNICEF strategy of Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) also aims to reduce these deaths by improving treatment.