stunting prevalence is high at around in papua new guinea while it is below in hong kong china singapore fiji and china figure left panel as for wasting if there is no severe food shortage the prevalence is usually below even in poor countries but it is much higher than this threshold in some countries such as india papua new guinea and bangladesh figure right panel on average the stunting and wasting prevalence across asian countries was and respectively in order to reduce under age mortality countries need to not only implement effective preventive and curative interventions for newborns children and their mothers during and after pregnancy see indicator infant and child health in chapter but also to promote optimal feeding practice see indicator infant and young child feeding in chapter