The protein-energy malnourished child in a Nigerian teaching hospital
Laditan, A.A.; Tindimebwa, G.
Journal of Tropical Pediatrics 29(1): 61-64
1983
ISSN/ISBN: 0142-6338 PMID: 6403713 DOI: 10.1093/tropej/29.1.61Document Number: 393204
From January 1972 to December 1976, 4624 malnourished children up to 108 months old were admitted to the paediatric wards of the University College Hospital, Ibadan. Of the patients 203 had protein-energy malnutrition (PEM), 146 had kwashiorkor and 24 marasmus. PEM patients had significantly lower electrolyte values than other healthy Nigerian children; their packed cell volumes were within the lower limits of normal values; and they had a low immunization rate to communicable diseases; 28.3% of them had had measles and 19.4% had persistent diarrhoea during and immediately before presentation with PEM. Hypothermia, hypoglycaemia and sepsis were not well documented on the patients, and indications that they were less rigorously looked for than they ought to have been, are presumed to have contributed to 28% mortality. Apart from poverty, such other factors as lack of interest by the medical staff and ignorance of child care, in general, and feeding, in particular, by parents, contributed to PEM and its related problems.