Home Therapy Until recently, malnutrition treatment has been restricted to facility-based approaches, greatly limiting its coverage and impact. Unfortunately, in most regions of Africa, when a mother has a sick child, she has two choices: do nothing or take the child to a hospital. Yet hospitals and clinics are often tens of miles away from rural communities, and the outcomes are poor: when a child has SAM, less than 40% recover from hospital treatment. The majority relapse or die. In addition hospital treatment can last from 4 to 8 weeks, causing the mother to be away from her other children and family, and compounding other health issues the family may be facing. However, researchers like Dr. Manary discovered that when SAM-effected children are treated with the use of RUTFs in their homes, they achieve remarkable recoveries. The home therapy model: does not compromise a mother’s ability to care for her home or family by forcing her to seek care miles away from her community. allows for multiple small feedings per day with adequate additional hydration means mothers no longer have to navigate through multiple agencies to determine the proper nutrition program for their child
PPB has helped save over 100,000 children
Project Peanut Butter - The Solution
RUTFs Child malnutrition rates today are devastating yet there is hope in the form of a recently created medical "super food" that provides the specific, high-quality nutrition children need to recover, survive, and even thrive. Ready to Use Therapeutic Foods (RUTFs) are high-calorie, fortified peanut butter-like pastes. Peanuts contain mono-unsaturated fats, which are easy to digest, and are rich in zinc and protein: both good for the immune system. Dr. Manary and his colleagues experimented with different mixtures of ground, roasted peanuts, vegetable oil, powdered milk, vitamins, minerals and sugar. Also called “Chiponde”, these RUTFs can be stored without refrigeration for months without spoiling and require no cooking. Critical to success is that children like the taste of RUTFs! From 2000 to 2004, the doctors went on to conduct multiple successful clinical trials with RUTFs. Today, the majority of Chiponde ingredients come from local farmers. However, the most expensive component used to produce Chiponde is the milk powder, because is not readily sourced in local communities.
The Combination By the late 90’s, many researchers knew that RUTFs were key to meaningful SAM recovery rates, but Dr. Mark Manary was the first to conduct clinical trials of RUTFs, administered in the home. In the 2000-2001 hungry season in Malawi, Dr. Manary’s small team treated 400 children with RUTFs combined with the new home therapy method. In this study, a remarkable 80% of the treated children reached their “100% weight for height goal” after 12 weeks! Similar results were achieved in large scale trials through 2004 and by 2005, Project Peanut Butter (PPB) was officially created and operating in 12 sites in Malawi. The combination of RUTFs administered in the home produced 95% recovery rates in many situations. In 2007, Dr. Manary’s revolutionary approach to treating SAM - RUTFs distributed via community-based treatment protocols - was commended as the most effective method to treat severely malnourished children by the United Nations, the World Health Organization, and UNICEF. Today, there are: PPB sites (21 clinics) providing the RUTF, staff, training and outreach; PPB-supported sites (~50) receiving the RUTF and training at no cost, PPB affiliated clinics where we sell our RUTF at the cost of manufacture to multiple governments and charities (~90) around the world. PPB does this by manufacturing between 1,000 and 1,250 tons of Chiponde on an annual basis, locally in Africa in its own facilities. The charity does its best to source the majority of Chiponde ingredients from local farmers (In Malawai, for example, all ingredients except milk powder and vitamins are sourced locally.) About.htmlAbout.htmlshapeimage_6_link_0shapeimage_6_link_1
Learn More: WHO website on Nutrition Anderson Cooper and 60 Minutes Reports on RUTFs in Niger William J. Clinton / Clinton HIV Aids Initiative supports Project Peanut Butter About Project Peanut Butterhttp://www.who.int/nutrition/en/http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/10/19/60minutes/main3386661.shtmlhttp://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/10/19/60minutes/main3386661.shtmlSolution_files/CHI_PedsLeaflet_REL%20%284%29.pdfSolution_files/CHI_PedsLeaflet_REL%20%284%29.pdfSolution_files/CHI_PedsLeaflet_REL%20%284%29.pdfAbout.htmlshapeimage_7_link_0shapeimage_7_link_1shapeimage_7_link_2shapeimage_7_link_3shapeimage_7_link_4shapeimage_7_link_5shapeimage_7_link_6
“...a food that may just be the most important advance ever to cure and prevent malnutrition." Anderson Cooper, Oct. 2007
Learn More: Map of clinics - Malawi, Sierra Leone, Mali Staff Biographies A typical day for a PPB doctor Partner Organizations Resourceshttp://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=103464453192326385987.000475525bc16ba33036f&ll=-13.218556,34.991455&spn=8.612694,10.140381&z=7http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=103464453192326385987.000473d350b253bde8fb1&t=p&z=9http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=103464453192326385987.000473d350b253bde8fb1&t=p&z=9Staff_Bios.htmlAbout.htmlTake_Action.htmlResources.htmlshapeimage_9_link_0shapeimage_9_link_1shapeimage_9_link_2shapeimage_9_link_3shapeimage_9_link_4shapeimage_9_link_5shapeimage_9_link_6
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What is in “Chiponde”?
Learn More: WHO Statement: Community-based management of Severe Acute Malnutritionhttp://www.who.int/nutrition/topics/statement_commbased_malnutrition/en/index.htmlhttp://www.who.int/nutrition/topics/statement_commbased_malnutrition/en/index.htmlhttp://www.who.int/nutrition/topics/statement_commbased_malnutrition/en/index.htmlshapeimage_16_link_0shapeimage_16_link_1shapeimage_16_link_2
“Chiponde” Ingredients: (% by cost 2009) Milk Powder is the most expensive component.
© Copyright 2009 Jeff Davis. All rights reserved.
Peanuts Powdered Milk Oil Sugar Vit / Mins
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