Estimating the burden of child acute malnutrition accurately

Across the world, 144 million children under the age of 5 (21.3%) suffer from stunting and 47 million (6.9%), from wasting , a form of acute malnutrition (see Box 1), according to the latest joint estimates on child malnutrition from UNICEF, WHO, and the World Bank. These numbers clearly represent a major public health challenge, in particular because child acute malnutrition is strongly linked to child mortality: Children with moderate acute malnutrition are 3.4 times more likely to die than are well-nourished children; children with severe acute malnutrition are 11.6 times more likely to die. And yet, when it comes to the number of children suffering from acute malnutrition every year, 47 million is almost certainly an underestimate.