NCOP
FOR WRITTEN REPLY
QUESTION NO. 336
DATE OF PUBLICATION IN INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER: 26 August 2011
(INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER NO. 26)
Mr O de Beer (COPE-WC) to ask the Minister of Health:
(a) What is the percentage of the (i) population which is consuming less
than 2 100 kilocalories and (ii) children who are suffering from acute
malnutrition per day and (b) what is the number of (i) adults and (ii)
children who are dying of hunger each day out of every 10 000 persons?
CW389E
REPLY:
a) (i) There is no current data on the percentage population that
consumes less than 2100 kilocalories per day. Data from the
1999 National food consumption survey only focused on children
between one and nine years of age.
(ii) Based on the District Health Information System (DHIS)
report, on average 38,089 new cases of children under the age
of 5 years with severe acute malnutrition reported to the
public health facilities in 2010.
b) (i) Data for adults is not routinely collected.
(ii) Approximately 20% of children who are diagnosed with severe
acute malnutrition in health facilities died in 2010. This
translates to 6 out of 10 000 children per month.
END.