Presents technical and practical guidelines for the development of a system that uses close and continuous monitoring of food supplies and nutritional status to predict food emergencies and prepare for an adequate response. The guidelines, which are specific to food problems in Eastern Mediterranean countries, take on particular importance in view of evidence that emergency relief operations and supplies during a disaster generally fail to prevent mass starvation. Though emphasis is placed on the need to avoid food crises and malnutrition, all clinical disorders linked to either dietary deficiencies or excess are considered when outlining the components of a surveillance system. The first half of the book is addressed to senior policy-makers and administrators who need to understand the essential place of systematic monitoring in the machinery by which a government safeguards the nutritional status of its population. To this end, readers are given a precise explanation of the design and function of a surveillance system, followed by information on the major determinants of nutritional status and their causal sequence in the production of disease. Other sections list twelve key indicators used to monitor malnutrition and detect the presence of diet-related clinical disease and explain the main ways to obtain data on each of these indicators. The second half of the book, addressed to technical personnel, concentrates on the technical information needed to develop and implement a surveillance system. Details range from extensive and short lists of indicators of nutritional status, through advice on the use and interpretation of anthropometric indicators, to tables setting out standard reference values for weight-for-height, weight-for-age, and height-for-age.

ara eng.

WHODOC

WHO monograph

4