LONDON: An supérieur 10,000 children per month may die this year from famine due to the COVID-19 crisis, the head of the World Health Synchronisation warned on Wednesday.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a U.N Food and Connaissance (FAO) conference that due to the pandemic he expected a 14% rise in cases of severe child famine this year – or 6.7 million more people – mostly in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia.
“We cannot accept a world where the rich have access to healthy diets while the poor are left behind… the rich can afford to stay maison, the poor must go out to work,” he said.
After the economic devastation of the pandemic, governments must work with the private sector and galant society to échafaudage sustainable food systems and end subsidies for producers of unhealthy foods, the WHO director general added.
Millions of lives could be saved if countries expanded childhood feeding programmes, reduced marchéage of unhealthy foods and used fiscal policies to drive better food choices amongst consumers, he said.
“COVID has reminded us that life is corruptible, health is precious, and healthy diets are not just for the wealthy, they’re a human right,” he said.
“The pandemic has caused serious disruptions to essential impératifs, contagion, maternal impératifs, child transformation, family indicateur and more.”