| Abstract: | In Venezuela, mortality related to nutritional deficiencies was low with a total of 178 cases in 1973 and 391 cases in 1981, affecting mainly children under the age of 12 months. In 1988 the System of Nutritional Surveillance (SISVAN) reported that the majority of hospital admissions with serious nutritional deficit were those with inadequate weight-height ratio: 37.0% of children under 1 year of age in 1988 and 46.4% in 1989. In 1988 SISVAN reported a decrease in the weight-height deficit in children under 10 years of age: 28,609 children in 1988 and 28,548 in 1989; whereas the age group from 2 to 6 years was the most affected by such deficit. Overall, however, there had been a slowdown in the improvement in child nutrition with the increase of grave malnutrition according to 1988 and 1989 data. 1990 and 1991 data showed an improved situation as a result of better use of state medical services by families and the milk program, indicating a decrease of the weight-height ratio deficit in children under 10 years of age: 18.0% in the first trimester of 1990 and 14.0% in 1991, along with the reduction of grave deficit from 0.9% in 1990 to 0.6% in 1991. Feeding as a determinant aspect of nutrition deals with the precarious nature of existing supplies, the diminution of acquisitive capacity, and the habits of consumption. The initiatives of the state for overcoming the situation include the basic basket of foodstuffs, direct subsidies to the low income population, and programs that fight nutritional deficiencies of children, such as the Expanded Maternal-Child Nutrition Program (PAMI). Households of daily care constitute the regional initiatives and the ability of the state to maintain these programs. The responses of urban centers before this initiative included a successful experiment, the center of education and nutritional recovery, and the child survival program. |
