Malaria & Malnutrition

Young children are more likely to fall victim to food shortages and thereby malnutrition, which increases their susceptibility to infectious disease, including an increase in mortality due to malaria. Severely malnourished children with a malarial infection may have no fever and show few or none of the classic signs of the disease, making it much more difficult to diagnosis & treat effectively. The World Health Organization suggests that all malnourished children in regions where malaria is endemic be screened proactively for malaria weekly even when they show no symptoms.