New WHO child growth standards catch on Since 2006, when the
World Health Organization launched the new Child Growth
Standards, over 140 countries have adopted them. Gozde Zorlu
talks to Dr Mercedes de Onis about why these represent a new
approach and why they are useful. Bulletin of the World Health
Organization 2011;89:250–251. doi:10.2471/BLT.11.040411 Dr
Mercedes de Onis is the coordinator of the Growth Assessment and
Surveillance Unit at the World Health Organization (WHO). She
led the WHO Multicentre Growth Reference Study from its
inception to the establishment of the WHO Child Growth
Standards. A 1981 graduate of the University of Medicine in
Madrid, Spain, de Onis completed training 1984–1986 in public
health and epidemiology at the School of Public Health, Johns
Hopkins University. She then joined the US National Institutes
of Health where she wrote her doctoral dissertation on fetal
growth retardation. Q: What are the WHO Child Growth Standards?
A: These charts are a simple tool to assess whether c