Malnutrition can be treated by encouraging the right gut bacteria

treatment for childhood malnutrition might seem obvious: more, and more nutritious, food. And the standard approach is indeed just that. Over the years, formulae for ready-to-use supplementary food ()—bars and packets of paste intended for moderate cases and made from rice, lentils, sugar, soya oil and milk powder—and similar therapeutic food (), a nut-based treatment for more severe instances, have been developed. These work. But Tahmeed Ahmed, executive director of the awkwardly named icddr,b, a research institute in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and his team think they have come up with something better. In collaboration with Jeffrey Gordon and his colleagues at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, Dr Ahmed’s team have produced a new mixture for the treatment of malnutrition. Besides providing nutrients, this formulation also enhances gut health. That brings benefits to the malnourished which the conventional approach does not. Now, the World Health Organisation () is testing the result, dubbed -2, in Bangladesh, India, Mali, Pakistan and Tanzania.