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Research Papers
Community nutrition
Saharawi refugees have been hosted in camps in Tindouf, south-west Algeria, since 1975. Since that time the Government of Algeria has supplied relief items. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has supported the government in meeting refugees' basic needs and opened an office in Algiers in 1985. The World Food Programme has supplied food assistance since 1986, and a range of donors and bilateral arrangements currently support the refugee population. Anaemia and chronic malnutrition were major public health problems, affecting 62 % and 32 % of children aged 6-59 months in the Saharawi refugee camps in Algeria in 2008(1). Similarly, anaemia prevalence was high in women, reaching 54 % in 2008(1). A previous trial carried out in 1999 using a high-nutrient-density spread for 6 months showed positive benefits in correcting retarded linear growth and reducing anaemia and stunting in children(2). However, the use of this type of spread was not continued and anaemia prevalence in young children almost doubled after the end of that intervention.
In 2009, as part of the UNHCR's Anaemia Strategy(3), two special nutritional products, a lipid-based nutrient supplement (LNS) and a micronutrient powder (MNP), were proposed for use in blanket supplementary feeding programmes as part of a prevention strategy to address the problems of anaemia and stunting. These two products were chosen due to the positive outcomes shown in recent studies. Studies in Malawi(4,5)and Ghana(6,7)showed a promising impact on linear growth, iron status and motor development when the LNS was added to the diet in small amounts (about 20-75 g/d). Bioavailability studies on MNP have shown that iron is well absorbed in infants(8,9)and multiple randomized studies have demonstrated the efficacy of MNP in treating anaemia in young children(10).
The acceptability of various LNS and MNP products was previously tested and generally found to be high in Pakistan(11), Ghana(12), Burkina Faso(13,14)and Malawi(15