This is according to the data taken from a recent SMART survey commissioned by the National Food and Nutrition Commission and supported by United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund(UNICEF).

Chief of Nutrition at UNICEF in Zambia, Kena Motlhoiwa outlines some of the key findings of the survey, “Just a little under 52 000 children are expected to fall into severest form of acute malnutrition and another 276 000 into a moderate acute form of malnutrition, and we also have now good clarity from the data about where the hotspots will be or as it is to where the geographic areas, you know the Southern province, the western province, the central province and the north-western province.

We also know from this data that about 112 000 pregnant and breastfeeding women will also fall into acute malnutrition and about 12 000 of them would the severe form of it.

This is important because when a pregnant women is malnutrition they  get poor outcomes for themselves in terms of survival for their own health but also their baby their carrying.”

--ChannelAfrica--