Nutritional situation of venezuelan migrant children upon entry into Peru and the actions taken to protect their health and nutrition

Abstract

The high level of Venezuelan migration is a great challenge for Peru due to the healthcare needs of immigrants. Worryingly, children under the age of five are the most vulnerable. In order to know the nutritional status of this group in migratory transit to Peru, a descriptive study was carried out with two rounds of data collection (August 2018 and March 2019) at the Binational Border Healthcare Center in Tumbes. In each round, nutritional status, morbidity and food characteristics were determined for 322 and 619 Venezuelan children under the age of five, as well as any health and nutrition actions implemented upon their entry into Peru. For each round, acute malnutrition affected 3.2% and 3.0%; chronic malnutrition 16.5% and 17.9%; anemia 34.8% and 25.0%; cough or shortness of breath was present in 31.3% and 17.6%; diarrhea in 16.6% and 9.9%. Nearly seven out of ten children under the age of two breastfed the day before. During the migratory journey and for each round, 58.3% and 47.0% of children under two years of age increased their frequency of breastfeeding, the minimum meal frequency (MMF) was met only by 13.9% and 18.0%. While the timely reaction in terms of healthcare and nutrition facing the inflow of migrant population is a good first step, the health system needs to generate the conditions so that health services can provide coverage with adequate quality to the entire population residing in the national territory, under the premise that the right to health is for everybody without any type of exclusion.