{
  "abstract": "An estimated 42.8 million (6.6% prevalence) infants and children under 5 years of age experienced wasting at any given time in 2024 and hundreds of thousands more infants and children are estimated to suffer from nutritional oedema. 1 2 Wasting and nutritional oedema are complex child health challenges that need to be addressed with nutritional and medical management for children to survive, recover and thrive. It is unlikely that the global wasting target (prevalence <5% by 2025) will be achieved.2–4 At the 78th World Health Assembly which took place in 2025, member states adopted a Resolution that involves extending the deadline for the Global Nutrition Targets to 2030.4 Efforts to address wasting and nutritional oedema, and their consequences, have been particularly challenging in recent years due to the current polycrisis of global hunger, conflict and widespread climate-related shocks—and now, major reductions in funding for nutrition which are expected to have significant consequences for managing severe wasting and nutritional oedema especially, which will inevitably increase child deaths.5–8",
  "authors": [
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Consultant to the World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland"
      ],
      "name": "Allison I Daniel"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Nutrition and Food Safety, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland"
      ],
      "name": "Kirrily de Polnay"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Nutrition and Food Safety, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland"
      ],
      "name": "Jaden Bendabenda"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Nutrition and Food Safety, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland"
      ],
      "name": "Laurence Grummer-Strawn"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Consultant to the World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland"
      ],
      "name": "Nina J Chad"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Centre for Evidence-based Health Care, Division Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Department of Global Health, Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa"
      ],
      "name": "Michael McCaul"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Centre for Evidence-based Health Care, Division Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Department of Global Health, Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa"
      ],
      "name": "Celeste E Naude"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Nutrition and Food Safety, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland"
      ],
      "name": "Zita Weise Prinzo"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [],
      "name": "Guideline Development Group on Wasting and Nutritional Oedema"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Strengthening the evidence base around prevention and management of wasting and nutritional oedema in infants and children: insights from the 2023 WHO guideline",
  "uid": "4fd6bdf7-d794-5d33-bfe9-7c0c595879cb"
}