<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000;">More than 3.27 lakh young children below the age of 5 are affected by 'severe wasting' in Bangladesh, says UNICEF. The UNICEF report on severe wasting among children issued on Tuesday called for urgent action against rising cases of severe acute malnutrition in South Asia. South Asia remains the 'epicentre' of severe wasting, where roughly 1 in 22 children is severely wasted, three times as high as sub-Saharan Africa. <br />''<br />''The report points out that in the rest of the world also countries are facing historically high rates of severe wasting. In Afghanistan 1.1 million children are expected to suffer from severe wasting this year, nearly double the number in 2018. Even in countries that are relatively stable, such as Nepal, child wasting has risen by 19 per cent since 2019. Currently, at least 10 million severely wasted children do not have access to the most effective treatment for wasting, ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF), said UNICEF. <br />''<br />''UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said that even before the Ukraine war placed a strain on food-security worldwide, conflict, climate shocks and COVID-19 were already wreaking havoc on families' ability to feed their children.<br />''<br />''Severely wasted children are too thin for their height which results in weakened immune systems. It is the most immediate, visible and life-threatening form of malnutrition. Worldwide, 13.6 million children under five suffer from severe wasting. More than 1 million children die due to severe wasting globally which is 20 percent of deaths among children under the age of 5. </span><br />