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Malnutrition may impact on GDP growth, expert warns
2008-05-10 11:06:07
By Correspondent Felister Peter
Tanzania is likely to suffer substantial decline in its gross domestic product (GDP) due to malnutrition problems, a food and nutrition expert has cautioned.
Tanzania Food and Nutrition Centre (TFNC) managing director Dr Godwin Ndossi said mid this week in Dar es Salaam that malnutrition had a direct bearing on health, education and the economy in general.
Dr Ndosi was presenting a paper titled `Current Status on Nutritional Disorders in Tanzania,` at a seminar organized by TFNC for journalists.
He revealed that the country stood to lose over 1,397bn/- over a period of ten years, from 2006.
Ndossi said reducing malnutrition would help sustain high growth rates. He said malnutrition was associated with sickness, and deteriorating education due to increased absenteeism.
In a study carried out recently by TFNC, anaemia alone could reduce the GDP growth rate by 2 to 3 per cent each year.
Available data showed that in Tanzania the prevalence of anaemia in children was 71.8 per cent while 47.9 per cent of women with child-bearing age had anaemia.
``Improved nutrition services are something that concern us all and which all of us can contribute to to sustain high rates of growth and achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDG)``, said Dr Ndossi.
He said the problem of malnutrition in the country was very high compared to countries like Kenya, Zambia and Uganda.
In Tanzania, chronically malnourished and stunted children accounted for up to 38 per cent.
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