Compared with last year, the rate of severe acute malnutrition in children will more than double this year.

As Haiti is facing the Coronavirus pandemic, it is expected that severe acute childhood malnutrition will more than double in Haiti this year. Violence soarsA report by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) shows that the resources of the website are declining.

Jean Gough, UNICEF’s regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean, said more than 56,000 children under the age of 5 may be affected, compared with 41,000 reported last year.

Severe acute malnutrition is considered a life-threatening disease. In the less dangerous category, acute malnutrition among children under 5 in Haiti has increased by 61%. It is estimated that 217,000 children will suffer from malnutrition this year, compared with 134,000 last year.

After visiting Haiti for a week, Goff said: “I am very sad to see so many children who are malnourished.” “Some people will not be able to recover unless they are treated in time.”

UNICEF said that overall, about 4.4 million of Haiti’s 11 million inhabitants lack adequate food, including 1.9 million children.

Gough told the Associated Press during a recent visit to a hospital in the southern city of Les Keyes that UNICEF has only one month of special food paste left for children in need, and hopes to get 300 by the end of June. Ten thousand U.S. dollars.

Officials say the pandemic has also disrupted health services, and depending on the vaccine, the immunization rate for children has dropped from 28% to 44%. The reduction has led to an increase in diphtheria cases as health workers are prepared for the anticipated measles outbreak this year.

UNICEF pointed out that unvaccinated children are also more likely to die of malnutrition.

“She never eats”

Lamir Samedi, a nurse who works at a community health center in the southern town of Saint-Jean-Doo, said that the goal is to vaccinate 80% of the children in the area, but they have not yet reached 50%. s level.

Among the children in the hospital, there is an 11-month-old Denise Joseph, who was diagnosed with tuberculosis two weeks ago. She lay quietly in Les Cayes (Les Cayes) Baby bed.

“She never eats,” said her grandmother, Marie-Rose Emile. She takes care of the baby because the mother is also sick. Emile worked hard to provide food for her babies. She said she hardly harvested any beans, corn or potatoes this year.

UNICEF official Goff said she was frustrated by malnutrition and the decline in the number of child immunizations. She said that more outreach services are needed because there are not enough people coming to the community health center.

Among those who visited the health center for the first time was 27-year-old Franceline Mileon. She heard a health officer in the neighborhood carrying a megaphone and announced that she had started a vaccination program, so she took her child. While waiting for the nurse to weigh, she sat on the bench holding the baby.

Overall, UNICEF said it needs nearly 49 million U.S. dollars this year to meet Haiti’s humanitarian needs, adding that very few of them have already been pledged. The agency’s US$5.2 million will be used for nutrition and US$4.9 million for health, including child immunizations.