While experts have for the last thirty years been prescribing Ready to Use Therapeutic Food for children with severe wasting – the deadliest form of malnutrition- UNICEF says more than 12 million still grapple with the condition.
The organization says in their latest news release that the fortified peanut paste first developed in 1996 has transformed the treatment of severe wasting by enabling children to be treated at home, but adds that to be able to beat this form of malnutrition, countries need to scale up a full range of nutrition treatment to among others, include therapeutic milk if they are to ensure uninterrupted access to life saving food by affected children.
“ This small but powerful sachet of therapeutic food fundamentally changed the way we treat children with severe malnutrition”, said Catherine Russell, the UNICEF Executive Director in her remarks noting that she had seen children suffering from severe wasting come alive when treated with RUTF and therefore urged for more access.
UNICEF is the world’s biggest donor of RUTF and between 2003 and 2025, they have procured a total of 8.7billion sachets of the product prescribed for children aged 6 to 59 months. However, the organization says in the statement that conflict, climate shocks and funding pressures that are escalating are affecting uninterrupted supply.
In 2025, of the 255million children screened for wasting globally, 42.8million were found to be affected by wasting, of which 12.2million had severe wasting. But, UNICEF only managed to treat about 9 million children. 500,000 of all the children were from Ethiopia.
Meanwhile, children with severe wasting are too thin for their height and have their immune system weakened to the extent that ordinary childhood illnesses become fatal for them. Studies have estimated that their risk of dying increases by 12 times compared to their well nourished counterparts.
RUTF remains the only outpatient treatment for child wasting recommended by the World Health Organization-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
