Children under 5 years, severe malnutrition and general health

Children with acute severe malnutrition are extremely vulnerable and have a mortality of 50% if untreated. A large proportion of them are malnourished due to tuberculosis. With therapeutic feeding and/or tuberculosis treatment their survival is around 90%. After one treatment episode children usually progress well and the treatment doesn’t need to be repeated. Children under 5 are also most vulnerable for infectious diseases (dengue, cholera, measles, pneumonia) and have the highest mortality. In particularly in rural slums were infectious diseases are rampant. MAM will provide therapeutic feeding and medical treatment to all children who arrive in the clinic with severe malnutrition or serious infectious diseases. For malnutrition, supplementary feeding for moderate malnourished children can prevent severe malnutrition and death.