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Médecins Sans Frontières in action
Treating malnutrition in the field
Médecins Sans Frontières' teams work in hospitals and therapeutic treatment centres to address the issue of malnutrition and provide emergency medical care to acute cases. They also set up protocols for treatment and prevention.
Scroll over the items to see how they are used to assess, treat and prevent malnutrition.
Mobile clinics
In areas where access to treatment centres and healthcare is limited, field workers travel to more isolated communities. Here they will provide health checks for adults and children, and monitor them for levels of malnutrition and outbreaks of disease.
Ready-to-use food
Ready-to-use foods are a specialised treatment that can be given to malnourished children. They're made from a nut-based paste, packed with high quality protein, vitamins and minerals. They don't contain water and are therefore easy to store in hot conditions.
RUFs can be administered by the child's parents at home or simply while being carried on the mothers back.
This enables the family to return to their normal life and to take care of their other children. It also frees up valuable resources to treat more complicated cases of malnutrition in hospital.
Identifying malnutrition
The MUAC band - a plastic bracelet with coloured gauges - is used to test children under five for severe and moderate cases of malnutrition, as well as identifying those at risk.
The band contains four coloured zones ranging from green (normal) through to red (severe malnutrition). It is wrapped around the child's mid-upper arm to measure the circumference and a reading is taken from one of the four coloured zones to help determine the level of treatment the child needs in order to recover.
When the MUAC band reading is in the 'red zone' the case is classed as 'severe'. If children in the 'red zone' aren't treated in time, there’s a very real threat of death or profound long-term health and developmental issues.
Registration
Every child that comes to a treatment centre is registered upon arrival. A registrar writes down the child's details, which may include their name and age, their mother's details and the name of their village. As well as for identification purposes and to monitor the child's progress through treatment, this process assists in determining which areas and communities are suffering, or may be at risk of, malnutrition.
Prevention
As a preventative measure, children and their families who are at risk of malnutrition may be sent home with rations of ready-to-use food. These treatments are packed with high quality protein, vitamins and minerals. Children can take this treatment at home and their health and general progress is monitored through visits to Médecins Sans Frontières' outpatient therapeutic feeding centres.
Inpatient nutrition centres
Children who present with complications of severe acute malnutrition may need to be hospitalised to receive highly specialised care at one of our inpatient centres. Treatments for severely malnourished children may include therapeutic milk via nasogastric tubes, antibiotics and blood transfusions.
For those who need to be hospitalised and carefully monitored, Médecins Sans Frontières equip therapeutic feeding centres with up to 60 intensive care beds. When children are sufficiently recovered and ready to leave the hospital, they continue to be cared for and monitored as outpatients until they have returned to health.
Médecins Sans Frontières is one of the few organisations able to give this level of specialist care to patients suffering from complications of severe acute malnutrition.
Measuring
Children who are moderately or severely malnourished have their height measured to work out their height-to-weight ratio. This helps to determine the treatment required.
Weighing
Moderately and severely malnourished children will be weighed and screened for oedema, a form of tissue swelling which is a symptom of kwashiorkor, a type of severe malnutrition.
Children being treated as outpatients are also weighed each time they return to the clinic. This enables their progress and weight-gain to be monitored in order to ensure they are recovering.
Therapeutic milk
In some instances, children suffering severe acute malnutrition or complications are unable to eat. These children are fed therapeutic milk through a nasogastric tube or syringe in the inpatient treatment centre.