A Life Saver Called "Plumpynut"

(CBS)  This segment was originally broadcast on Oct. 21, 2007. It was updated on June 20, 2008.

You've probably never heard a good news story about malnutrition, but you're about to. Every year, malnutrition kills five million children - that's one child every six seconds. But now, the Nobel Prize-winning relief group "Doctors Without Borders" says it finally has something that can save millions of these children.

It's cheap, easy to make, and even easier to use. What is this miraculous cure? As CNN's Anderson Cooper reports, it's a ready-to-eat, vitamin-enriched concoction called "Plumpynut," an unusual name for a food that may just be the most important advance ever to cure and prevent malnutrition.

---

"It's a revolution in nutritional affairs," says Dr. Milton Tectonidis, the chief nutritionist for Doctors Without Borders.

"Now we have something. It is like an essential medicine. In three weeks, we can cure a kid that is looked like they're half dead. We can cure them just like an antibiotic. It's just, boom! It's a spectacular response," Dr. Tectonidis says.

"It's the equivalent of penicillin, you're saying?" Cooper asks.

"For these kids, for sure," the doctor says.

No kids need it more than a group of children 60 Minutes saw in Niger, a desperately poor country in West Africa, where child malnutrition is so widespread that most mothers have watched at least one of their children die.

Why are so many kids dying? Because they can't get the milk, vitamins and minerals their young bodies need. Mothers in these villages can't produce enough milk themselves and can't afford to buy it. Even if they could, they can't store it -- there's no electricity, so no refrigeration. Powdered milk is useless because most villagers don't have clean water. Plumpynut was designed to overcome all these obstacles.

Plumpynut is a remarkably simple concoction: it is basically made of peanut butter, powdered milk, powdered sugar, and enriched with vitamins and minerals. It tastes like a peanut butter paste. It is very sweet, and because of that kids cannot get enough of it.

The formula was developed by a nutritionist. It doesn't need refrigeration, water, or cooking; mothers simply squeeze out the paste. Many children can even feed themselves. Each serving is the equivalent of a glass of milk and a multivitamin.

To see the impact it's having, 60 Minutes drove for 12 hours from Niger's capital to a remote village, where every week Doctors Without Borders hand out Plumpynut. After sleeping in a field under mosquito nets, Cooper and the team awoke at sunrise to find mothers emerging from the fields. Many had walked for hours in the dark, along treacherous paths, avoiding scorpions, spiders and poisonous snakes.

Rivers of women flowed into the site and within minutes there were more than a thousand of them, all waiting to get packets or tubs of Plumpynut. In a land where plastic bags are a luxury, they carry the food home in their scarves, their hands, or simply stacked on top of their heads.

"When you see some of these kids they don't look sick. They don't look malnourished. They don't have bloated bellies or little stick arms," Cooper remarks.

"The ones that we're used to seeing on TV, that's the worst of the worst of the worst. It's the tip of the iceberg. And then below that, there's the iceberg. So, there's a whole spectrum of malnutrition," Dr. Tectonidis says. "And when we go and check these kids, well, they're way off in height or in weight. They're way off."

• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page »

[Jimmy371]

Call me a cynic. By keeping these children alive now, you are setting them up for starvation later. What stops these women from having more children than they can afford to feed or clothe? Christian Childrens Fund? That's a Band-Aid for a more symptomatic problem of people breeding beyond their capacity to care for their children, or for the land to support them.

[rinngary89]

Coming in super late....

The comments about worries of diabetes KILL me! When you are starved, you are SO far from facing TYPE 2 (let's clarify). You just need to eat, and you need to eat no, and you need fat and sugar and protien NOW. So seriosly people, educate yourself before you talk about starving children as though they are obsese Americans. Sheesh.

[wonderfulyfe]

%u201CThe value of compassion cannot be overemphasized. Anyone can criticize. It takes a true believer to be compassionate. No greater burden can be borne by an individual than to know no one cares or understands.%u201D Arthur H. Stainback

[wonderfulyfe]

Superb work Anderson Cooper. Thank you so much for this touching and informative report which was obviously focusing specifically on saving precious lives, not in casting %u2018blame%u2019 on anyone.

In sadly observing dear Rashida who died in this report, there is nothing more heartbreaking than helplessly watching a precious child starve to death. As if nothing could have been done. But is that true? Not according to this report.

How wonderful to see an amazing reversal, with %u201CPlumpynet%u201D in other cases. It is a temporary solution, but what a blessing to have a miracle product to literally save them. Touching.

It was also especially touching to observe the compassion of the wonderful doctors involved, Dr. Tectonidis and Dr. Shepherd. We should honor them and thank them.

A beautiful bible proverb states: %u201CWhoever has pity on the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his good deed.%u201D Proverbs 19:17

So God lovingly regards such compassionate giving as %u201Cloans%u201D to Him that He repays with blessings and favor.

Thank you so much Anderson Cooper and %u201C60 Minutes%u201D for this %u201Cgood news%u201D report (despite the sadness in the report too) and focusing on the most important thing, the dear human lives involved. I keep them in my thoughts and prayers, and the time to come when no dear child will ever starve on this beautiful planet and no mother will ever have to grieve. Wishing you all blessings.

[joseph5716]

In the spirit of George Carlin....married at 11,children by 16,they should be grateful they don''t live in Texas ! Instead of super peanut butter they would all be in jail.On a more serious note,B"H for all those who are doing,helping others.

[todreamer]

I believe we don''t have the right to interfere in another country''s sexual mores, but all we can do is help these poor people as much as we can with nutritional issues. Well nourished youngsters go to school to beome productive citizens who will find ways to improve the way of life for all people. On a lighter note, Anderson, the look on your face when handed a baby was priceless - love, compassion, wonder were obvious in a matter of seconds. Just maybe this could be your ultimate "bliss" someday?

[garylhach]

Your report on Plumbynut was excellent; however you misrepresented the nutritional value of the grain millet. Anderson Cooper stated it was a very low nutritional grain and only used in this country as bird feed. Millet is a very high nutritional grain and is used extensively world wide including the United States. It has 80% complex carbohydrates, 7% fat, and 13% protein.

[begim]

I was a victim of malnutrition as an infant so I was told. I was born in 1960 after an acute civil war in Rwanda. Actually my mother was pregnant during the ethnic war. I was her sixth child and she bore three more children after me, but some of the other undernourished were first born. I recovered from malnutrition thank to powdered milk that was being distributed by missionaries. It was my mother who walked long hours pregnant with my sister and carrying me on her back to go get that milk. My father never took the trip. Children are women%u2019s business. That%u2019s how things are done in those African patriarchal societies for those of you who are wondering where the men were. Rwanda recovered from that famine. I don%u2019t know anyone receiving powdered milk to raise her children in my conscious years. In my adult time, at Health Centers, nutrition lessons were given to women instead of handing them powdered milk. What those doctors are doing in Niger is great. We need to save those children. Any child has right to live. I %u2018m hoping, however, that Plumpynut distribution will be a short program. Young brides, young mothers, many children are others projects on their own.

[piratehenry]

I believe in equal opportunity sterilization. Black, white, rich, poor, Christian, Muslim, it doesn''t matter. Once you produce two offspring, you''re done. We need negative human population growth for the human race to survive on this little rock. We''ve already made it unsurvivable to many other species due to our selfishness. The resources and food are not unlimited.

[cptnel65]

Wow Anderson!!! I respected you because you always spoke your mind and was not worried about the politically correct answer. This one was main stream media hog wash. I am not sure who tied your hands (joke we all know CBS wanting that good news story as long as the US is not involved unless it is blamed for it) but the real issue is mothers having an average of 8 children in a country that can''t feed itself and spreads aids and other sexual diseases at a rampant rate(Unfortunate result of an underdeveloped country. Lack of knowledge kills.Thats a real feel good story...huh!). Always save life''s when you can but not to watch them die from disease and famine when the population even grows to a more unmanageable number. TREAT THE WHOLE PROBLEM!! Very poor"FEEL GOOD STORY" Mr Cooper. I heard you quote the birth rate and then nothing. Maybe you wanted to expand but how dare the main stream media criticize another country. They save that for us. The most generous country in the world whenever disasters hit any other country. We as people and country are always first responders. Oh well just had to comment. I absolutely do not want you to be told how to do a story or what not to include. I hope you read this. Keep your integrity even if that means quitting the CBS gig.

P.S. What about all the rapes from tribes going village to village? Did you know the biggest prize to the tribal men are young boys??? Oh that''s not a feel good story...can''t print that....sorry I mentioned it CBS