In 2022, 35 deaths of children under 5 years of age due to malnutrition and causes associated with malnutrition were registered in Chocó.
The data is very worrying because there was an increase in cases in relation to the year 2021, when there were 17 deaths of children under 5 years of age due to malnutrition.
Throughout Colombia in 2022, 308 deaths of children under 5 years of age due to malnutrition and causes associated with malnutrition were registered, 111 more cases than those registered in 2021. In the same way, in the last year the National Institute of Health reports 21,483 cases of early childhood children with acute malnutrition.
According to the latest epidemiological bulletin from the National Institute of Health (INS), La Guajira is the department with the highest number of reported deaths with 85 cases, followed by Chocó with 35, Cesar with 25, Bolívar 24, Magdalena 23, Valle del Cauca 17. , Antioquia 10, Atlántico 10, Meta 10 and Vichada 9.
There are factors that directly affect malnutrition: food availability, consumption, access and basic sanitation, conditions that must be fully guaranteed to curb malnutrition in childhood and generate scenarios fully guaranteeing human rights.
It is necessary to note that malnutrition in children under 5 years of age has serious and prolonged implications for cognitive development and growth, and prevents adequate school performance, and hinders the ability to learn, communicate, analyze, socialize, and adapt. Clearly, malnutrition affects the rights to education, decent life and health.
The Ombudsman, Carlos Camargo, asked for greater institutional commitment to care for children with moderate and severe acute malnutrition.
“We call on the national government, the governorates and municipalities to ensure and provide the full enjoyment of adequate food in their territory, this implies that physical and economic access to food in adequate quantity and quality must be guaranteed, to take away a healthy life and thus guarantee the rights of early childhood”, he said.