Introduction:
A well-fed and breaded society of children is considered a boon to society because they will be the future backbone of the nation. So ensuring that children worldwide are well fed with adequate nutrition is one of the major causes considered by both the government and profitable and nonprofitable organizations worldwide. This widespread awareness regarding the lack of children's nutrition took place mainly after the second world war when children in many countries were seen with severe nutritional deficiencies resulting in poor health, immunity, muscle wasting, growth retardation, and death. To overcome this, orders were passed in the United Nations to improve the quality of life of childrenby providing them with adequate nutrition and healthcare.
What Is Wasting Disease in Children?
Wasting disease is a clinical condition where the child is seen to have a reduced muscle and build that is ideal for a child's age and weight. In wasting disease, children show sudden, drastic abnormal weight loss and inability to gain weight. Wasting disease is often associated with nutritional deficiencies, where this sudden drop in weight and bodily changes can be life-threatening.
What Are the Causes of Wasting Diseases?
When children show signs of wasting diseases, it often indicates that they have been experiencing low nutrition for a short to longer period. Still, most commonly, it is due to a sudden inadequate nutrition intake. While the main cause of wasting disease is lack of nutrition, it is triggered by factors like food availability shortage in a particular population or certain systemic diseases. Famine, poor harvest seasons, and low social status of the countries can be a social cause. However, the systemic causes in the body that trigger wasting disease are conditions that directly affect the immunity of children, like autoimmune conditions (conditions where the body fails to detect its cells and fight against them ) or infectious diseases like tuberculosis (bacterial infection affecting the lungs) or HIV (human immunodeficiency virus). This is because, in such systemic conditions, the child's body often requires more energy to overcome or fight against the disease.
How Commonly Is Wasting Disease in Children Seen?
Almost 50 million children across the world are seen to be affected by wasting, with the two primary causes being infection and nutrition. Many studies were conducted from time to time over the years to have a greater picture of the wasting disease, the countries that are affected, and the age group of children. According to the reports, it was seen that around 14 percent of children under the age of two is affected by wasting disease. Around nine percent occurrence in children between the ages of two to four, with an average rate of five percent is seen around 68 to 87 countries in the world.
What Are the Clinical Features of Wasting Diseases?
Depending on the occurrence of the disease, wasting disease can be differentiated into acute and chronic wasting diseases, and the clinical signs of these conditions are as follows.
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Clinical Features in Acute Wasting: The clinical features of wasting disease are significant loss of muscle mass and fat tissues. Children appear shorter than their height, which is also called stunting in childhood, where the height and weight for the age of the child is more than -3 SD (standard deviation), the circumference of the child’s arm is also measured, where children with wasting disease show a circumference of more than 115 millimeters. The children also show edema (accumulation of fluid) in both feet. It is essential to assess children with severe acute wasting as they are considered to be dangerous signs when associated with medical illness or loss of appetite.
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Clinical Features in Chronic Wasting: Chronic wasting disease occurs when the child is exposed to a prolonged period of wasting, lasting more than eighteen to twenty-four months, which is often associated with a predisposing infection. The clinical features of chronic wasting diseases are progressing weight loss, changes in the child’s behavior, loss of orientation towards oneself and others, lack of social interaction, etc. Although these symptoms are common, the progression of the disease from acute to chronic is less likely to be seen as the acute condition can be most of the time life-threatening.
How Is Wasting Disease in Children Managed?
Management of wasting disease mainly aims to provide and restore the nutritional needs of the children in a particular society. As wasting disease is seen as a community rather than an individual approach, it requires balancing the needs of the children in an entire community. To meet such needs, in 2015, global countries and organizations came forward to create a committee called Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that keeps track of the nutritional needs being provided for children and to eradicate malnutrition. By forming these goals, the World Health Organization (WHO) has targeted to lower the rate of children suffering from wasting disease from five percent to three percent by 2030. So the ways of managing children from wasting disease according to the global action plan are done by:
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Preventing or treating decreased blood sugar levels (hypoglycemia).
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Preventing or treating chills and maintaining body temperature.
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By preventing excessive water loss in the body.
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By maintaining an adequate balanced electrolyte level.
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By correcting the micro nutritional deficiencies in the body.
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By cautiously feeding the children.
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By achieving a growth in height and weight.
Conclusion:
Wasting disease can be a serious, disheartening condition when seen in children that affects their entire growth and well-being. It is, as a community, the responsibility of everyone to manage it. So, to overcome such scenarios, many global organizations worldwide, like the WHO (World Health Organization) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), provide funding to overcome the inadequacy of food and nutrition for children. By giving proper care and nutrition through food and water, the wasting of the child can be prevented, which in turn builds the child's immune system, helping it overcome any physical illness and showing better survival rates.
