2,000 kids died of hunger in Guatemala last year
By IANSFriday, January 7, 2011
Guatemala City, Jan 8 (IANS/EFE) Over 2,000 children under the age of five years died in Guatemala during the first 10 months of 2010 as a consequence of illnesses caused by malnutrition, an official report said.
The report made public Friday is based on statistics of the Epidemiology Center of the health ministry covering the period from Jan 1-Oct 31, 2010.
“It’s worrying that mortality from hunger is double that of deaths from violence. Thousands of children are estimated to be at risk and there is no sufficient effort being made to save them from this grave situation,” an official said.
According to the report, 84 percent of the youngsters died at home due to lack of medical care.
Ministry figures show that one in every two Guatemalan children under five suffer from malnutrition, as a consequence of the poverty and extreme poverty in which more than 52 percent of the country’s 14.4 million people live.
–IANS/EFE
