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Article: MALNUTRITION IN GUATEMALA: DEATH AND PERMANENT DEBILITATING DAMAGE TO THE NATION'S CHILDREN.
- Article from:
- NotiCen: Central American & Caribbean Affairs
- Article date:
- September 3, 2009
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 Latin American Data Base/Latin American Institute. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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It has taken a while for official Guatemala to catch up with a July 18 report in the British medical journal Lancet documenting that malnutrition in the country is at the crisis point. The study, funded by the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, says most children in Guatemala get enough to eat but the food is nutritionally inferior, leading to chronic malnutrition for many. Author Samuel Loewenberg worked in a Chiquimula clinic where he saw wasted, severely malnourished children, many with kwashiorkor, a protein-deficiency disease with a long list of debilitating symptoms. Untreated sufferers are permanently stunted in height and weight and have diminished mental ...