Professor fights African malnourishment

In the southeastern African country of Malawi, malnutrition is rampant. Approximately 70 percent of Malawian children are malnourished, with an estimated 13 percent dying before five years of age.

Mark Manary, a Washington University professor of pediatrics, is working to fix that.

In 2001, Manary started a non-profit organization known as the Peanut Butter Project. The project strives to overcome malnutrition by feeding moderately to severely malnourished children an enriched peanut butter during an eight-week rehabilitation period.

"The food is new because it's nutritionally everything that a kid needs to eat," said Zachary Linneman, a freshman involved with the project and who traveled to Malawi last January. "It doesn't need to be cooked, it contains no water so it won't grow any bacteria and can be stored in ambient conditions in Africa."

The enriched peanut butter, known as ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF), consists of a nutrient-rich mixture with peanuts, powdered milk, oil, sugar and fortified with vitamins and minerals.

"The peanut butter-feeding has been a quantum leap in feeding malnourished children in Africa," Manary told The Record. "The recovery rates are a remarkable improvement from standard therapy."

Because he is currently working at a malnutrition clinic in Malawi, Manary was not available for direct comment.

During the eight-week testing period, RUTF was fed to 1887 severely malnourished children and 686 moderately malnourished children aged six to 60 months. The progress of the children was monitored and tested on a regular basis.

For a child to be classified as recovered after eight weeks, he or she must reach 85 percent of their ideal weight-for-height based on World Health Organization standards.

The recovery rates for the severely and moderately malnourished children stood at about 89 and 85 percent, respectively. Dropouts and deaths account for the remaining percentages.

"The method is different; also, it's called home-based therapy," noted Linneman. "The idea is that kids spend most of their time at home rather than in a hospital where they could get an infection."

The Peanut Butter Project currently produces between 300 and 350 tons of RUTF each year in its Malawi factory. The funding for the factory comes from private donations.

Linneman estimates that the factory's capacity-double of that which is currently being produced-is enough to feed most of Malawi's 40,000 children.

The fact that this project sees such remarkable success in a resource-limited setting in which personnel lack medical backgrounds is truly a testament of the program's promise.

Linneman first became involved with Manary's research during his senior year in high school. A St. Louis native, Linneman used his senior service project at St. Louis University High School to aid Manary's project.

Linneman is listed as a co-author in Manary's paper on his research and one of about six volunteers who continue to be committed to the project.

"It's a big part of my life," said Linneman. "When you get the opportunity to do something that works and is helpful, stick with it."