Prevalence of nutrition deficiency disorders among children in an Iraqi village in 1994

ABSTRACT

The method of clinical ascertainment is used in community survey done in an Iraqi village near Mosul. Al-Ghubah cross-sectional population survey is conducted in September 1994 among under five years children. The aim is to determine the nature and prevalence of nutrition deficiency disorders four years after the imposition of the inequitable blockade on the Iraqi people. A high prevalence of undernutrition in the village is indicated by two findings. The first is a prevalence rate of clinically overt Protein-Energy Malnutrition of 1.5% and a prevalence rate of clinically manifested nutrition deficiency disorders combined together of 6% suggesting a much higher prevalence of subclinical mild to moderate forms of undernutrition. The second finding of the survey which confirms the first, is the very high incidence of infectious diseases among the children. The monthly incidence of diarrheal diseases is 31%; of Acute Respiratory Infection is 20%; and of intestinal parasitic infections is 6%. Six out of every ten children have a new spell of these infections every month. These rates are at least twice that are reported from surveys done before 1990 in the same geographical area