Professor of international health Per Ashorn describes his arrival in the medical profession as chance rather than choice.  Since the beginning of his career, however, he has been interested in wide issues in public health.

Researcher profile:

Curing world hunger

Professor of international medicine Per Ashorn may have one of the answers to hunger in Africa

Text: Mari Valkonen
Photo: Erkki Karén
Translation: Virginia Mattila

A small 100gr beaker reminiscent of the yogurt container serves to "condense" Professor Per Ashorn's fifteen years of collaboration with the University of Malawi.  It contains a paste rather like peanut butter to which powdered milk and certain nutrients have been added.

Professor Ashorn and his research group at the University of Tampere test food supplements which in the professor's opinion could be part of the solution to hunger in southern Africa.

"I do not believe that this will end all hunger.  There is a lack of clean water and there are infections during pregnancy, but we hope that this will solve some problems," he says.

While Professor Ashorn's research group research the effects of food supplements on malnutrition, they also endeavour to ascertain what other factors influence malnutrition and growth disturbances.

An immigrant in Finland

Per Ashorn first went to Malawi in east Africa in 1993 when work began on the planning of a teaching health centre in the Lungwena district.  Dr. Ashorn, who was at the time specializing in paediatrics, wanted to join the project since he had been interested in global health problems throughout his medical training.

Another reason for his interest, the professor says, was his international background; he was born in the USA.

"I am an immigrant in Finland.  I grew up in a bilingual family where there were always all kinds of people visiting us.  In my childhood I encountered much more than Finnishness."

He admits to being a bit of an altruist.  However, his motivation for his work was pure egoism.

"I like this work and I am good at it.  It's OK by me if someone else benefits from it," he grins.

Two hundred million children suffer from hidden hunger

When Dr. Ashorn began his work in Malawi infant mortality there was among the highest in the world.

"In 1995 infant mortality according to many reports was eighth worst in the world, although superficially thing seemed OK."

Professor Ashorn set about finding out why infant mortality was so high; it appeared that one of the main reasons was malnutrition.

He claims that this was not a case of famine as such, which can be observed as extreme thinness or distended abdomens.

"There was always something missing from the people's nutrition.  This we refer to as hidden hunger and some two hundred million children in the world are suffering from it.

The research began by ascertaining what was generally consumed in the district.  According to Professor Ashorn no combination of nutrition was sufficient to ensure that the children were getting a balanced supply of all they needed from their conventional diet. Some supplement had to be developed which pregnant women and small children could take in the manner of a medication.

"If we could ensure that people have a good diet during pregnancy and in the first two years of life many detrimental effects could be eliminated."

Currently Professor Ashorn's research group is aiming to learn enough about the effect of the product on stunted growth due to malnutrition.

"Then we could make recommendations that children and pregnant women should be given such a product."