AMERICA/MEXICO - A million and a half to two million children are malnourished and suffer from anemia

Mexico City (Agenzia Fides) - The rate of anemia in Mexico is worse than all the Countries of other continents, including Africa. A child born in Chiapas is six times more likely to suffer from malnutrition than the rest of Mexico. This was stated by the Director of the National Institute for the local Public Health, which confirmed that States like Chiapas, Guerrero and Oaxaca is where the major number of children with food shortages is concentrated.
According to the Ranking Nacional de Nutrición Infantil (RANNI), an institute set up to identify the most important data on chronic malnutrition, anemia, and breastfeeding, in order to cope with the challenges and define the actions to be taken, in 11 States of Mexico, indices of chronic malnutrition have increased in the last six years, while other 6 regions have deteriorated with regards to cases of anemia. Currently, there is one and a half million malnourished children and 2 million under 5 years of age are anemic in the Country. At a global level, Mexico is demoted in the fight against anemia, decreasing the national average of one percentage point, from 12.4 to 13.6. From 1999 to 2005, the Country reduced the percentage of malnutrition from 21.5 to 15.4. (AP) (Agenzia Fides 16/12/2013)