Nutritional status of preschool children in the drought affected Kalahandi district of Orissa.

A community-based cross-sectional study was undertaken to determine the magnitude of undernutrition and protein-energy malnutrition among young children during 1996-97 in drought affected Kalahandi district of Orissa. A total of 751 children aged 0-5 yr were studied for anthropometry and clinical signs of nutritional deficiencies from 15 Gram Panchayats selected using probability proportionate to size sampling. There was no significant difference between boys and girls for nutritional status. According to weight-for-age, 57.1 per cent of the children were suffering from underweight (< median -2SD) and 21.3 per cent of children had very low body weights which were < -3SD of standard. Height-for-age and weight-for-height data showed that 41.8 per cent of children suffered from stunting and 27.9 per cent recorded wasting. The children below one year of age had relatively lower prevalence of malnutrition than the other age groups. The prevalence of clinical PEM in the form of marasmus was found in 0.7 per cent of children, while kwashiorkor was absent. This study showed that malnutrition is still a leading problem among preschool children of Kalahandi district and this has not improved in spite of nutrition intervention programmes which are currently in operation.

Hereditary hemolytic disorders among the Ashram school children in Mayurbhanj district of Orissa.

Hemoglobinopathy and allied hemolytic disorders are important genetic and public health problems in Orissa. These cause high degree of hemolytic anemia, morbidity and mortality in the vulnerable populations. A total of 465 Ashram School children aged 6-15 years belonging to Bathudi, Bhumiz, Kolha and Santal tribes in six localities of Mayurbhanj district of Orissa were screened for hemoglobinopathy, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G-6-PD) deficiency, ABO and Rhesus blood groups serology and any other hereditary condition. The sickle cell trait (Hb AS) was detected in Santal (1.0%), Bathudi (1.0%) and Bhumiz (0.9%) tribals. No case of homozygous sickle cell disease was detected among the tribes of Mayurbhanj district. The beta-thalassemia trait was detected in Santal (8.0%), Kolha (2.0%), Bhumiz (1.7%) and other tribal (3.8%) students. Sickle cell hemoglobinopathy and beta-thalassemia are prevalent in this district among the tribes, but the frequency is very low. The prevalence of G-6-PD deficiency is considerably high (7.7-9.8%) among the tribes of Mayurbhanj district in Orissa. Out of total 43 G-6-PD deficient subjects, there were 32 males, 9 heterozygote females and 2 homozygous females. This shows that the antimalarial drugs should be administered with caution as these cause hemolytic anemia, sometimes fatal also. The distribution of ABO and Rhesus blood groups shows the preponderance of B blood group (33.8%) over O (29.6%) and 2.1% cases of Rhesus negativity were detected among the Bathudi tribe. This pattern is consistent with the characteristic features of tribal populations in India.