[pronut-hiv] plumpynut

["George Carter" <fiar@verizon.net>]

One case study.
Food Nutr Bull. 2006 Jun;27(2):95-104.Links
     The promise of a community-based approach to managing severe  
malnutrition: A case study from Ethiopia.
     Chaiken MS, Deconinck H, Degefie T.

     Department of Anthropology, Indiana University of Pennsylvania,  
Indiana, Pennsylvania 15705 USA. chaiken@iup.edu

     BACKGROUND: Community-based therapeutic care (CTC) is a new  
strategy in the arsenal of techniques to manage complex nutritional  
emergencies in rural communities. The CTC approach uses a newly  
developed ready-to-use therapeutic food, Plumpynut, to rehabilitate  
severely malnourished children in their home communities. Emerging  
literature has suggested the CTC strategy yielded results that were  
superior to those of programs limited to therapeutic feeding centers,  
as measured by rates of coverage and numbers of children  
rehabilitated. OBJECTIVE: To compare the effectiveness of the CTC  
strategy in combination with conventional treatments for acute  
malnutrition. The expectation was that this program would support the  
growing consensus on the effectiveness of CTC strategies. METHODS:  
Data from monitoring the initial phase of program implementation were  
reviewed to ascertain program impact. The number of children  
participating and the outcome of their participation were assessed.  
RESULTS: Families became key participants in the rehabilitation of  
their children, and communities became strengthened through the  
mobilization of local networks and the improved knowledge base of  
local health workers. Recovery rates were comparable with  
international standards, and coverage far exceeded that of  
traditional center-based care. CONCLUSIONS: CTC is an important tool  
to effectively address nutritional emergencies and may be a valuable  
entry point for long-term development, since it fosters capacity  
building and improvement in local communities. CTC programs may  
eventually be viewed as the entry point for more sustained  
development-oriented interventions, thus helping make the transition  
from relief to development.