Vietnam cut the malnutrition rate among children to 19.9% in 2008 from 38.7% in 1998, state media reported, citing a senior health official. Minister of Health Nguyen Quoc Trieu released the figure at a meeting in Hanoi on Dec. 23 to review 10 years of implementing the National Targeted Program on Child Malnutrition Prevention. Vietnam faces many challenges in reducing the malnutrition rate in rural areas and those affected by natural disasters, Trieu stressed. Stunting and malnutrition rates in children under five are still high at 32.6% and obesity and nutrition-related chronic diseases have increased, especially in big cities, he noted. At the conference, participants agreed that priorities should be given to child malnutrition prevention and child height and physical strength improvement in the coming years.
