Starvation is a severe deficiency in caloric energy, nutrient and vitamin intake. It is the most extreme form of malnutrition. In humans, prolonged starvation can cause permanent organ damage and eventually, death. The term inanition refers to the symptoms and effects of starvation.
According to the World Health Organization, hunger is the single gravest threat to the world's public health. The WHO also states that malnutrition is by far the biggest contributor to child mortality, present in half of all cases. Six million children die of hunger every year. Figures on actual starvation are difficult to come by, but according to the FAO, the less severe condition of undernourishment currently affects about 925 million people, or about 14% of the world population.
The bloated stomach, as seen in the picture to the right, represents a form of malnutrition called kwashiorkor which is caused by protein deficiency combined with inadequate caloric consumption. Children are more vulnerable to kwashiorkor whose advanced symptoms include weight loss and muscle wasting. It is quite common to depict a thin child with a bloated stomach as starving, but in reality, such child is malnourished.
Read more about Starvation: Common Causes, Signs and Symptoms, Biochemistry, Starvation Statistics, As Capital Punishment
Famous quotes containing the word starvation:
“The spectacle of misery grew in its crushing volume. There seemed to be no end to the houses full of hunted starved children. Children with dysentery, children with scurvy, children at every stage of starvation.... We learned to know that the barometer of starvation was the number of children deserted in any community.”
—Mary Heaton Vorse (1874–1966)
“In a country where misery and want were the foundation of the social structure, famine was periodic, death from starvation common, disease pervasive, thievery normal, and graft and corruption taken for granted, the elimination of these conditions in Communist China is so striking that negative aspects of the new rule fade in relative importance.”
—Barbara Tuchman (1912–1989)