ABSTRACT
The nutritional status of 1468 Black preschool children in a rural Eastern Cape area was assessed anthropometrically in order to provide the Department of Health and Welfare with a critical evaluation of the effectiveness of its subsidized skimmed milk powder scheme for local authorities in combating kwashiorkor, to indicate factors which influence nutritional levels, and perhaps to provide a sound theoretical and empirical foundation for future health strategies. Weight and height for age (using the norms of the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS], weight for height, and triceps and subscapular skinfold thickness were used as criteria for assessing nutritional status. Stated age and certified age groups were assessed separately. Depending upon the sex and stated/certified age, the percentages of children falling under the third percentile ranged from 11,1% to 37,0% for NCHS norms and from 10,9% to 15,7% for skinfold thicknesses. Together with an urban assessment undertaken in December 1982 the survey may indicate where local problems will occur.
Subject(s)
Child Nutritional Physiological Phenomena , Black or African American , Age Factors , Black People , Body Height , Body Weight , Child, Preschool , Female , Health Surveys , Humans , Infant , Male , Rural Population , Sex Factors , Skinfold Thickness , South Africa , Statistics as TopicSubject(s)
Infant Mortality , Nutrition Disorders/mortality , Black People , Humans , Infant , South AfricaABSTRACT
The sera of 139 children aged between 8 months and 6 years from the town of Port Alfred in the eastern Cape Province were examined for antibodies to the three types of poliovirus. A protective level of antibody to type 1 virus was found in 73.4% of the sera. The figures for types 2 and 3 were 94.2% and 68.3% respectively. The results indicate good herd immunity to poliomyelitis. No cases of paralysis or isolations of poliovirus had been reported from the area for the 6 years preceding the survey. The high degree of immunity is therefore unlikely to be due to circulating 'wild' virus to any great extent. It must be ascribed mainly to the immunity achieved by the administration of an average of 2.8 doses per child of trivalent live poliovirus vaccine. The low figure of 47.4% for immunity to all three types of virus could be due to enterovirus interference and inhibitory factors. A fourth dose of vaccine was thought to be indicated and is now given as a routine measure. Further investigations on the response to this will be undertaken.