Malnutrition rates among refugee children in Bangladesh double earlier estimates: UNICEF

By:Xinhua
update:November 07,2017

GENEVA, Nov.6,2017-- Some refugee children streaming into Bangladesh are showing symptoms of severe acute malnutrition, the UN children's agency UNICEF said Friday.

Preliminary data from a nutrition assessment conducted last week at Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox's Bazaar, Bangladesh, showed a 7.5 percent prevalence of life-threatening severe acute malnutrition, UNICEF said at a media briefing.

"That is a rate double that seen among Rohingya child refugees in May 2017," said UNICEF spokesperson Christophe Boulierac.

Malnutrition rates among children in Myanmar's northern Rakhine were already above emergency thresholds, said the UN agency. The condition of these children has further deteriorated due to the long journey across the border and the conditions in the camps.

Around 26,000 people now living in the Kutupalong camp faced with an acute shortage of food and water, unsanitary conditions and high rates of diarrhea and respiratory infections. Cases of measles have also been reported.

Meanwhile, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that over the last 48 hours some 4,000 Rohingya refugees crossed into Bangladesh from Myanmar at the Anjumanpara border crossing point.