BACKGROUND The standard treatment of severe malnutrition in Malawi often utilises prolonged inpatient care, and after discharge results in high rates of relapse. AIMS To test the hypothesis that the recovery rate, defined as catch-up growth such that weight-for-height z score >0 (WHZ, based on initial height) for ready-to-use food (RTUF) is greater than two other home based dietary regimens i...

BACKGROUND Previous studies have shown the benefits of ready-to-use supplementary food (RUSF) distribution in reducing the incidence and prevalence of severe acute malnutrition. METHODS AND FINDINGS To compare the incidence of wasting, stunting and mortality between children aged 6 to 23 mo participating and not participating in distributions of RUSF, we implemented two exhaustive prospective...

BACKGROUND Ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) has been found effective in treating severe acute malnutrition. Vietnam's National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), and UNICEF collaborated to formulate a local RUTF called High-Energy Bar for Integrated Management of Acute Malnutrition (HEBI). RUTF might be useful to address malnutrition in HIV ...