Vietnam reported the malnutrition rate among children at 17.5% in 2006-2010 period, surpassing 2.5% of its whole-period target, the local health officials said. They released the information at a meeting in Hanoi on Jan 20 to review the implementation of a national program on child malnutrition prevention in the 2006-2010 period. The country reduced the rate of underweight children aged less than five by 7.7% or 500,000 kids in 2010, the officials said, elaborating that the height malnutrition rate among this child group was 29.3%. Participants emphasized the necessity to pay more attention to and early control obesity and overweight among children in big urban areas. Also at the conference, the participants agreed that priorities should be given to child malnutrition prevention and height and physical strength improvement among kids in the coming years. They, however, added that Vietnam is still being listed among the top 20 countries worldwide with high malnutrition rates. (Tien Phong – Pioneer Jan 21 p15, Nguoi Lao Dong – Laborer Jan 21 p2)
