DECEMBER 1954

KWASHIORKOR--"In 1929 an English woman physician working among tribes in the Gold Coast of West Africa encountered a puzzling disease. It seemed to attack only young children, and it was usually fatal. Dr. Cicely Williams judged that the disease was due to malnutrition, and named the disease kwashiorkor, as the Ga tribe called it. In 1944 protein deficiency was discovered to be the culprit in kwashiorkor. In the temperate regions of the world, where most hospitals and biological research are concentrated, malnutrition has been considered synonymous with deficiencies of vitamins rather than proteins. This is understandable, since the chief staple in the temperate belts is grain--a food relatively well endowed with protein but poor in certain vitamins. A series of surveys and conferences, initiated largely by the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization, show that kwashiorkor probably occurs in every country in the tropical belt around the world, where the staples of the diet (mainly fruits and vegetables) are poor in protein."

1 Comments

1. 1. Dr. Wade 07:23 AM 9/26/08

   Wasn't the Nestle Corporation linked to widespread kwashiorkor outbreaks in infants living in Africa many years ago? I seem to recall a similar story surrounding baby formula, now China is being blamed.
   Someone should take a closer look at Nestle.
   Virginia Wade, M.D.
   vwademd@aol.com

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