The Devastating Costs of Malnutrition

What's the first front in the fight to improve global health? According to a recent study highlighting the link between malnutrition and HIV/AIDS, it's the fact that worldwide, as many as two billion people suffer from undernourishment.

This week, though, the inaugural Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development (GCARD) is meeting that front, and making the case for better agricultural practices and outcomes within development.

Published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the study has good and bad news on nutrition. The first is that protein-calorie malnutrition -- "the most common form of adult malnutrition" in sub-Saharan Africa -- makes it more difficult to for people with HIV/AIDS-compromised immune systems to ward off disease. On the flip side, though, the authors also note that early weight gain at the start of anti-retroviral treatment is associated with better treatment outcomes.

But how can weight gain be encouraged in the developing world, where chronic hunger is widespread? What's more, increasing cost of food and declining agricultural productivity growth are only aggravating the challenge, says a recent Science editorial.

To answer this question, GCARD's goals are sweeping in scope. Among others, they include: ensuring that agricultural research is relevant to the poor, and that scientific research is incorporated into development practice. GCARD isn't meant to be a site for lengthy discourse. Instead, it's focused on translating agreed-upon best practices into action. The key, of course -- as with any conference on development and global health -- is in the follow-through.

Thus, it's critical to build some momentum around the issue. That means following the recommendations that come out of GCARD and encouraging their adoption. Or, as Meredith recently highlighted here, supporting the Global Food Security Act that U.S. Sens. Richard Lugar and Robert Casey introduced last year in an effort to increase agricultural development around the world. The petition she created -- to encourage the passage of this Act -- is a critical one that I encourage you to sign.

Recent news that West Africa has been hit by a drought brings this issue into focus. The region's farmers are "sinking faster and irreversibly into absolute poverty," according to a local coalition, and malnutrition rates are climbing. And the consequences could be devastating, both in the short term -- more than 50 children have already died in Niger of malnutrition -- and in the long-term, for the region's HIV/AIDS patients.

We need to fight malnutrition now, and GCARD is a good start.

Photo Credit: Rachel Strohm