WHO meeting report on community-based management of severe malnutrition

Ministry of Health staff working in outpatient therapeutic care in a clinic in Ethiopia

A meeting of experts was organised by the Department of Child and Adolescent Health and Development and the Department of Nutrition for Health and Development of the WHO, by UNICEF and by the UN Standing committee on Nutrition in Geneva on 21-23 November 2005, to review recent developments in community-based management of severe malnutrition and to formulate recommendations. In preparation for this meeting, five background papers were prepared:

• A review of methods to detect cases of severely malnourished children in the community for their admission into communitybased therapeutic care programmes. Myatt M, Khara T, Collins S.


Taking MUAC measurement of a child in Ethiopia

• Efficacy and effectiveness of communitybased treatment of severe malnutrition. Ashworth A.
• Key issues in the success of communitybased management of severe malnutrition. Collins S, Sadler K, Dent N, Khara T, Guerrero S, Myatt M, Saboya M, Walsh A.
• Local production and provision of ready-touse therapeutic food for the treatment of severe childhood malnutrition. Manary M.
• The sustainability of Community-based Therapeutic Care (CTC) in non-acute emergency contexts. Gatchell V, Forsythe V, Thomas PR.

These, along with the meeting report, are all available at http://www.who.int/child-adolescent-health/publications/NUTRITION/CBSM.htm