Malnutrition among under-five children in Democratic Republic of the Congo: A plague of the health system

Abstract

Malnutrition in children has been recognized as a major public health problem in the world and in particular in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which directly contributes to the increase in mortality and morbidity in this already fragile population. The Democratic Republic of Congo is a country plagued by repeated conflicts between different local armed groups and instability in the management of political affairs. There is a high prevalence of malnutrition in the eastern provinces of the country. Although it is a major public health problem, the inadequacy of the system in question plays an important role in the inequality of access to health care and therefore in the lack of growth monitoring of very young children under 5 years old. The rate of malnourished children has been observed in the country. Malnutrition in these children causes several alterations such as delayed physical and motor growth, a decrease in immune defenses which considerably increases the mortality rate and a decrease in cognitive and learning abilities. Malnutrition remains a serious public health problem in low-income countries and is reflected in various statistics from the World Health Organization. Children are more at risk of being at nutritional risk or suffering from malnutrition. This narrative review summarizes current data on the prevalence and determinants of malnutrition in children, including the difficulty of providing children with a consistent food intake due to mass displacement from conflict areas, the inability of nutritional centers to care of patients admitted for malnutrition due to lack of equipment and the many epidemics the country has had to deal with which have severely handicapped the already unstable health system.