Wasting
Loss of muscle and fat tissue / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Further information: Malnutrition
This article is about the medical syndrome. For similar terms with different meanings, see Waste (disambiguation).
In medicine, wasting, also known as wasting syndrome, refers to the process by which a debilitating disease causes muscle and fat tissue to "waste" away. Wasting is sometimes referred to as "acute malnutrition" because it is believed that episodes of wasting have a short duration, in contrast to stunting, which is regarded as chronic malnutrition. An estimated 45 million children under 5 years of age (or 6.7%) were wasted in 2021.[1]: 4 Prevalence is highest in Southern Asia, followed by Oceania (excluding Australia and New Zealand) and South-eastern Asia.[1]: 14