ll.6.3. How infections could be
avoided by well nutrition
The human body requires a balanced diet that provides
nutrients, minerals, and vitamins for a functional and effective immune
response (Chandra,1999).
Recently, convincing evidence has been gathered to show that a
set of proven and available interventions can solve these nutrition problems.
Several of these direct and indirect nutrition interventions focus on the
period from minus -9 to 24 months (i.e., from pregnancy to two years old)
because during this «window of opportunity,» effective nutrition
interventions have a high impact in reducing death and disease and avoiding
irreversible harm to health and cognitive development due to under nutrition.
Recent economic studies found that such interventions are highly
cost-effective, with major returns to individual intellectual development, and
earnings and national economic growth (Government of Rwanda, 2009). Relapse is
reduced by training parents how to feed their child frequently with energy and
nutrient dense foods. The regimen was tested in a South African project and
found to reduce mortality from 30% to 20% (Schofield and Ashworth, 1997).
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