(Paris) Almost 7 million additional children in the world could suffer from the effects of malnutrition due to the economic and social crisis caused by the COVID pandemic – 19, according to a UNICEF estimate released Tuesday.
Posted on 27 July 2020 to 18 h 27
France Media Agency
Before the COVID pandemic – 19, 47 million children around the world were already suffering in 2019 from the consequences of malnutrition, weight loss and extreme thinness, underlines UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund.
“It has been seven months since the first cases of COVID – 18 were reported and it is increasingly clear that the consequences of the pandemic harms children more than the disease itself, ”UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore said in a statement.
“Poverty and food insecurity have increased. Essential services and food supply chains have been disrupted. The price of food has skyrocketed. The result is that the quality of children's diets has declined and rates of malnutrition will increase, ”she continued.
UNICEF is based on an analysis published by the medical journal The Lancet , in which the researchers are alarmed at the consequences of malnutrition linked to the COVID pandemic – 18 on children.
“The profound impact of the COVID pandemic – 19 on the nutrition of younger children could have intergenerational consequences”, believe- they, fearing that it will harm “the growth and development of these children.”
