Malnutrition Affects 1 in 4 Children, Global Report Says

FILE-- In this file photo of Wednesday July 6, 2011, a malnourished child in her grandmother arms at Wajir District hospital, Wajir town, Kenya. Malnourished, skeletal children are desperate for food aid in parts of Kenya, but other areas of the East African nation have had a bumper crop and farmers are complaining the glut has depressed prices. The contrast between different regions of the country highlights how poor policies help turned a drought into widespread hunger. The U.N. says more than 13 million people need food aid in the Horn of Africa, including 3.75 million Kenyans. Donors are appealing for more than a billion dollars to feed the hungry until the end of the year.(AP Photo/ Sayyid Abdul Azim-FILE)

A new report says that despite advances against hunger around the world, chronic childhood malnutrition remains largely overlooked and almost a half billion children are at risk of permanent damage over the next 15 years.

The report released Wednesday by Save the Children says that malnutrition is a largely hidden crisis that affects one in four children globally. The report says that 300 children die every hour of every day because of malnutrition.

Global hunger has fallen markedly over the last two decades, but the 2011 Global Hunger Index found that six countries have higher rates of hunger today than two decades ago. Five of those countries are in Africa. The other is North Korea.

Source: Yellowbrix

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