TY - JOUR T1 - Treating severe acute malnutrition seriously JF - Archives of Disease in Childhood JO - Arch Dis Child SP - 453 LP - 461 DO - 10.1136/adc.2006.098327 VL - 92 IS - 5 AU - Steve Collins Y1 - 2007/05/01 UR - http://adc.bmj.com/content/92/5/453.abstract N2 - Severe acute malnutrition (SAM) affects approximately 13 million children under the age of 5 and is associated with 1–2 million preventable child deaths each year. In most developing countries, case fatality rates (CFRs) in hospitals treating SAM remain at 20–30% and few of those requiring care actually access treatment. Recently, community-based therapeutic care (CTC) programmes treating most cases of SAM solely as outpatients have dramatically reduced CFRs and increased the numbers receiving care. CTC uses ready-to-use therapeutic foods and aims to increase access to services, promoting early presentation and compliance, thereby increasing coverage and recovery rates. Initial data indicate that this combination of centre-based and community-based care is cost effective and should be integrated into mainstream child survival programmes. ER -