One Hundred Thousand Starving Children in Pakistan

Over one hundred thousand children are in danger of dying from malnutrition in Pakistan, UNICEF warns.

UNICEF currently estimates there will be approximately 105,000 new cases of children suffering from dangerous levels of malnutrition in the next six months, following the extreme floods.

Severe acute malnutrition in children increases the chances of death by as much as 10 times but is easily prevented through early identification and treatment of severe acute malnutrition combined with access to clean drinking water and hygiene.

Even before the floods, the situation was very serious. Now, with an estimated 20 million people affected, of which 2.8 million are children under the age of five, an already very difficult situation has been made far worse. This is due largely to the increase in acute watery diarrhoea and respiratory diseases.

UNICEF together with the Government of Pakistan, other UN agencies, NGO partners and the International Red Crescent and Red Cross is rapidly responding to the situation.

Screening and treatment of children with severe acute malnutrition before they need urgent medical intervention, is already being swiftly scaled up by UNICEF and partners. Caregivers are being trained and provided with essential medicines as well as specially formulated ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTF) for children identified as malnourished.

So far over two thousand people have died in the flooding in Pakistan floods which began in late July, and in many areas have still not receded.

“When ever you get a major disaster, as in Pakistan, it is always the children that are the worse-affected,“said UNICEF New Zealand’s executive director, Dennis McKinley.

“Children, particularly young children are much more susceptible to disease than adults.

“These children were probably in bad shape before the disaster – and the floods may be the last straw for them,” he says.

UNICEF is scaling up its operation in Pakistan, to over 400 people and has revised its funding targets.

UNICEF’s revised funding requirement is NZ$ 356 million, and currently has a remaining funding gap of US $213 million.