World Health Day: 1 in 3 children suffer from malnutrition

April 7th of every year marks World Health Day, a time to emphasize public health concerns and combat widespread diseases. With this Day and all the efforts being made, many children still face serious health challenges, including malnutrition. One of the most common health challenges facing children around the world is malnutrition. According to World Health Organization reports, 33% of children in the world suffer from malnutrition. This means that one in three children under the age of five suffer from malnutrition. Which greatly affects their health and development. Malnutrition can also lead to serious health repercussions, such as delayed growth, weak immunity, psychological effects, and even death in the worst cases.

The World Health Organization raises the slogan “My health is my right.”

The WHO has confirmed that health threats are increasing around the world, threatening the rights of millions of people and causing death, disability, and destruction of daily life. This year’s theme was chosen to defend everyone’s right to health services, education, safe drinking water, clean air, good nutrition, decent housing, suitable work, and healthy environmental conditions. The World Health Organization Council noted that the right to health is a human right. However, many countries do not realize this right for their citizens. The organization’s statistics showed that more than half of the world’s population, more than 4.5 billion people, did not fully benefit from basic health services in 2021.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) also stresses the right of every mother and child to benefit from quality healthcare services during pregnancy and postpartum.

 

On this important international day, we must all pay attention to a real tragedy that threatens the lives and future of millions of children and parents in an environment that is unfit for living and lacks the most basic nutritional elements that children need to grow and develop properly. Therefore, we as a society must join hands to combat undernutrition and ensure that every child has all the elements (correct nutrition, health services, education, safe drinking water, clean air, adequate nutrition and housing, and healthy environmental conditions) they need to live a safe, healthy life.

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