Nutritional assessment of children after severe winter weather--Mongolia, June 2001.

During 1999-2001, Mongolia (2000 population: 2.7 million) experienced consecutive dzuds (i.e., a severe winter with extreme cold and heavy snowfall that causes mass debilitation and death of livestock and jeopardizes the lives of herders who depend on their animals for food, fuel, income, and transportation) that resulted in a loss of nearly six million of the country's 33 million livestock. As a result, severe psychological stress and increased school drop-out rates have been reported, and increased migration of rural herders into urban centers has placed a burden on water, sanitation, medical, and social services. This disaster threatened the health and food security of approximately 40% of the country's population. The Mongolian Ministry of Health asked the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) for assistance in assessing the nutritional effects of the 2000-2001 dzud on children aged 6-59 months. This report summarizes the results of that assessment, which indicated that affected districts had no excess nutritional wasting in any age group; however, excess growth stunting and anemia were common in both affected and unaffected districts. Expanded monitoring of this population is needed to determine the causes of malnutrition and to develop appropriate interventions.