GENEVA -- Malnutrition among the youngest Iraqis has almost doubled since the US-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein, a hunger specialist told the UN Human Rights Commission yesterday in a summary of previously-reported studies on the nation's health.
By last fall, 7.7 percent of Iraqi children under 5 suffered acute malnutrition, compared with 4 percent after Hussein's ouster in April 2003, said Jean Ziegler, a specialist on the commission.
Malnutrition, which is exacerbated by inadequate sanitation and a lack of clean water, is a major killer of children in poor countries.
