The need to update the classification of acute malnutrition

In August, 2002, we reported positive results from treating severe acute malnutrition on an outpatient basis.1 Since then, similar community-based therapeutic care (CTC) projects, treating more than 3000 severely malnourished children in Sudan, Malawi, and Ethiopia, have replicated these findings. CTC projects include three modes of treatment: dry take-home supplementary care for people with moderate malnutrition uncomplicated by anorexia or life-threatening illness; outpatient therapeutic care for those with severe malnutrition uncomplicated by anorexia or life-threatening illness; and phase one inpatient care for severe or moderate malnutrition complicated by anorexia or concurrent life-threatening illness.