VietNamNet Bridge – Viet Nam has made better than expected progress in reducing malnourishment among children under five years of age, an annual conference on nutrition held in HCM City heard yesterday.

The success in reducing malnourishment among children under five years of age to 19.9 per cent last year, two years ahead of the target, will spur efforts to push it further down to 18 per cent by 2010, they said.

The original target, set by the National Assembly and the Ministry of Health, was to bring the malnourishment rate down to 20 per cent by 2010.

Deputy Minister of Health Tran Chi Liem said this was a significant achievement, given that the World Health Organization ranks Viet Nam among the top 20 countries in the world for underweight malnutrition among children below five years of age.

Over a period of four years (2005-08), a grassroots programme to prevent malnourishment had benefited more than 350,000 children, the conference heard.

The conference also aimed to examine the results of the prevention programme implemented last year in 33 provinces and cities in the south and set fresh targets for this year.

Liem said one of the targets of the health sector through 2010 was to ensure there was no province and city in the country with malnutrition levels of over 30 per cent among under-five children.

A nationwide survey last year found that Kon Tum and Dak Nong provinces in the Tay Nguyen (Central Highlands) have malnutrition levels of over 30 per cent.

Viet Nam currently has more than 32.6 per cent of its children suffering from stunted malnutrition, the conference heard.

Malnutrition among children is most common in the Central Highlands, northwestern provinces and the northern part of the central region, according to National Institute of Nutrition.

For this year, the Health Ministry has set the target of reducing underweight malnourished children to below 20 per cent, stunted malnourished children to below 32 per cent and the rate of infants weighing below 2.5kg to below five per cent.

Le Thi Hop, director of the National Institute of Nutrition, said despite the recent achievements, Viet Nam is still one of the countries in the world with a high rate of malnourished children.

Hop urged local health officials to exert greater efforts to spread awareness of the need to prevent malnourishment and improve care provided to expecting mothers.

For this, it was important for local administrations to be motivated and different departments to co-operate with each other, she said.

Truong Hong Son, Secretary of the Child Malnutrition Prevention Programme, said targets this year included increasing the number of mothers breastfeeding babies for the first six months by 5 per cent and those with proper knowledge of nutrition by 10 per cent.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News