Pan American Whole Health Alliance - Alianza de Pan American de la Salud Integral

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[ El Salvador Statistics ]

Basic Information About El Salvador    

For a very complete look at general statistics look to the World Factbook http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/es.html

Health Information (1)  

The following information is by the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress under the Country Studies/Area Handbook Program. As it is a temporary on-line searchable source it is not possible to bookmark or hyperlink to the site.  Below is some of the information from the country study.

Malnutrition was particularly prevalent among young children. Even before the upset caused by civil conflict during the 1980s, approximately 48.5 percent of children under five years of age suffered from mild malnutrition, 22.9 percent from moderate malnutrition requiring medical attention to cure, and 3.1 percent from severe malnutrition requiring hospitalization for adequate recovery. Stated differently, 80 percent of children suffered from at least first-degree malnutrition--10 to 24 percent underweight--and 5 percent suffered from third-degree malnutrition--over 40 percent underweight. Because pregnant women usually lacked proper nutrition as well, many children were born underweight and undernourished.

The poverty responsible for inadequate nourishment among campesinos was also reflected in substandard homes and living conditions. In some regions, land for housing and domestic life was limited to an absolute minimum by the expansion of private estates. Some closely crowded groups of huts were strung along the remaining narrow strips of public lands bordering highways and rivers or erected on narrow peripheries between the fenced boundaries of estates closed to resident laborers and the nearest public road, in an arrangement called "fence housing."

Rural homes typically sheltered four or more persons. They usually had one, sometimes two, rooms, dirt floors, walls of adobe brick or bahareque (wood frame with a mud or rubble fill) or of poles and straw, and thatched or tiled roofs. The kitchen commonly was in a separate shelter or located under an extension of the main roof.

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Health Information (2)  

For detailed health data please go the the PAHO website :    http://www.paho.org/English/SHA/prflels.htm

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