Malnutrition

Hospital Escuela has alerted parents to kwashiorkor, a severe protein-deficiency malnutrition affecting Honduran children under five, which can cause abdominal swelling, hair changes, and weakened immunity; the facility reports treating up to three cases monthly.

Pediatricians in public hospitals are treating children under five with marasmus and kwashiorkor, severe acute malnutrition conditions not seen at these levels in decades, a direct result of four months of extreme drought triggered by the 'super El Niño' phenomenon.

Congresswoman Alejandra Burgos, president of Congress's Food Security Commission, reports that 2.2 million Hondurans are in food insecurity due to drought, with 60,000 at critical risk requiring urgent government intervention to prevent severe malnutrition.