Hunger in Africa: the link between unhealthy people and unhealthy soils

Sánchez, Pedro A.; Swaminathan,

doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(05)17834-9

Cited by 111 publications

(26 citation statements)

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“…By contrast, programmes that improved income, nutrition, and health care for poor people generally also improved growth outcomes, especially in children from families with a lower socioeconomic status 38–40 . This all seems to suggest that child nutrition is best improved through equitable economic growth, investment in infrastructures, technologies, and policies that improve agricultural productivity and earnings of smallholder farmers, 36 and pro-poor primary care and food programmes. Focusing on these determinants and their effects on nutrition is particularly relevant in the context of the worldwide economic crisis and rising food prices, which might increase inequalities and erode or limit investments in nutrition and health care.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trends in mild, moderate, and severe stunting and underweight, and progress towards MDG 1 in 141 developing countries: a systematic analysis of population representative data

et al. 2012

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SummaryBackgroundThere is little information on country trends in the complete distributions of children's anthropometric status, which are needed to assess all levels of mild to severe undernutrition. We aimed to estimate trends in the distributions of children's anthropometric status and assess progress towards the Millennium Development Goal 1 (MDG 1) target of halving the prevalence of weight-for-age Z score (WAZ) below −2 between 1990 and 2015 or reaching a prevalence of 2·3% or lower.MethodsWe collated population-representative data on height-for-age Z score (HAZ) and WAZ calculated with the 2006 WHO child growth standards. Our data sources were health and nutrition surveys, summary statistics from the WHO Global Database on Child Growth and Malnutrition, and summary statistics from reports of other national and international agencies. We used a Bayesian hierarchical mixture model to estimate Z-score distributions. We quantified the uncertainty of our estimates, assessed their validity, compared their performance to alternative models, and assessed sensitivity to key modelling choices.FindingsIn developing countries, mean HAZ improved from −1·86 (95% uncertainty interval −2·01 to −1·72) in 1985 to −1·16 (–1·29 to −1·04) in 2011; mean WAZ improved from −1·31 (–1·41 to −1·20) to −0·84 (–0·93 to −0·74). Over this period, prevalences of moderate-and-severe stunting declined from 47·2% (44·0 to 50·3) to 29·9% (27·1 to 32·9) and underweight from 30·1% (26·7 to 33·3) to 19·4% (16·5 to 22·2). The largest absolute improvements were in Asia and the largest relative reductions in prevalence in southern and tropical Latin America. Anthropometric status worsened in sub-Saharan Africa until the late 1990s and improved thereafter. In 2011, 314 (296 to 331) million children younger than 5 years were mildly, moderately, or severely stunted and 258 (240 to 274) million were mildly, moderately, or severely underweight. Developing countries as a whole have less than a 5% chance of meeting the MDG 1 target; but 61 of these 141 countries have a 50–100% chance.InterpretationMacroeconomic shocks, structural adjustment, and trade policy reforms in the 1980s and 1990s might have been responsible for worsening child nutritional status in sub-Saharan Africa. Further progress in the improvement of children's growth and nutrition needs equitable economic growth and investment in pro-poor food and primary care programmes, especially relevant in the context of the global economic crisis.FundingThe Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the UK Medical Research Council.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trends in mild, moderate, and severe stunting and underweight, and progress towards MDG 1 in 141 developing countries: a systematic analysis of population representative data

et al. 2012

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“…Several authors argue strongly for investments in low-cost water harvesting techniques, irrigation, and clean water provision as a means of increasing food production and reducing infectious disease burden [32],[33]. Numerous examples exist across sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia in which access to a small amount of irrigated land has transformed food security for highly vulnerable households [34].…”

Section: Water Supply and Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water Supply and Health

2010

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“…Direct exposure to nutrients (especially nitrate ingestion via drinking water) can cause or contribute to pathology in humans and wildlife, with examples ranging from methyglobinemia, to reproductive problems to various cancers (Ward et al 2005). Similarly, increases in food production associated with fertilizer usage can reduce malnutrition and enhance human health (Sanchez and Swaminathan 2005; Smith et al 2005). Our goal here, however, is to explore the indirect effects of environmental nutrient enrichment on diseases, which are often ecologically complex and potentially far-reaching.…”

Section: Nutrient Enrichment and Diseasementioning

confidence: 99%

Linking environmental nutrient enrichment and disease emergence in humans and wildlife

Johnson

Townsend

Cleveland

et al. 2010

Ecological Applications

225

167

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Worldwide increases in the numbers of human and wildlife diseases present ecologists with the challenge of understanding how large-scale environmental changes affect host-parasite interactions. One of the most profound changes to Earth’s ecosystems is the alteration of global nutrient cycles, including those of phosphorus (P) and especially nitrogen (N). Alongside the obvious direct benefits of nutrient application for food production, growing evidence suggests that anthropogenic inputs of N and P can indirectly affect the abundance of infectious and noninfectious pathogens, sometimes leading to epidemic conditions. However, the mechanisms underpinning observed correlations, and how such patterns vary with disease type, have long remained conjectural. Here, we discuss recent experimental advances in this area to critically evaluate the relationship between environmental nutrient enrichment and disease. Given the inter-related nature of human and wildlife disease emergence, we include a broad range of human and wildlife examples from terrestrial, marine and freshwater ecosystems. We examine the consequences of nutrient pollution on directly transmitted, vector-borne, complex life cycle, and noninfectious pathogens, including West Nile virus, malaria, harmful algal blooms, coral reef diseases and amphibian malformations. Our synthetic examination suggests that the effects of environmental nutrient enrichment on disease are complex and multifaceted, varying with the type of pathogen, host species and condition, attributes of the ecosystem and the degree of enrichment; some pathogens increase in abundance whereas others decline or disappear. Nevertheless, available evidence indicates that ecological changes associated with nutrient enrichment often exacerbate infection and disease caused by generalist parasites with direct or simple life cycles. Observed mechanisms include changes in host/vector density, host distribution, infection resistance, pathogen virulence or toxicity, or the direct supplementation of pathogens. Collectively, these pathogens may be particularly dangerous because they can continue to cause mortality even as their hosts decline, potentially leading to sustained epidemics or chronic pathology. We suggest that interactions between nutrient enrichment and disease will become increasingly important in tropical and subtropical regions, where forecasted increases in nutrient application will occur in an environment rich with infectious pathogens. We emphasize the importance of careful disease management in conjunction with continued intensification of global nutrient cycles.

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Hunger in Africa: the link between unhealthy people and unhealthy soils

Cited by 111 publications

References 1 publication

Trends in mild, moderate, and severe stunting and underweight, and progress towards MDG 1 in 141 developing countries: a systematic analysis of population representative data

Trends in mild, moderate, and severe stunting and underweight, and progress towards MDG 1 in 141 developing countries: a systematic analysis of population representative data

Water Supply and Health

Linking environmental nutrient enrichment and disease emergence in humans and wildlife

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