Acute malnutrition nearly doubled among Iraqi children: UNICEF

[maddezmom]

NEW YORK (AFP) - The United Nations (news - web sites) Children's Fund (UNICEF (news - web sites)) warned that the number of young Iraqi children suffering from acute malnutrition has nearly doubled since the March 2003 invasion, as health and living conditions have deteriorated.


Almost eight percent of Iraqi children younger than five suffer from chronic diarrhea and protein deficiency, the agency's latest reports said.


"This means that hundreds of thousands of children are today suffering the severe effects of diarrhea and nutrient deficiencies," UNICEF executive director Carol Bellamy said.


Diarrhea, caused mainly by unsafe water and in some areas lack of clean supplies, is responsible for 70 percent of child deaths in Iraq (news - web sites), the agency said.

more: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20041205/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_unicef_malnutrition&cid=1514&ncid=1480