In her interview with the Project team, Pam Wilson mentioned the high incidence of children presenting with anaemia symptoms caused by worms. Dr Roderick Shaw, a GP at Stockbridge Blue Practice, drew our attention to an article in this month’s New England Journal of Medicine that supports Pam’s observations. The article reviews a study carried out by researchers at the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital, the Chikwawa District Hospital and the Wellcome Trust Research Laboratories in Malawi. The researchers found that hookworm infection was associated with iron deficiency.
Although iron supplements may have a role in preventing anaemia, supplementation after severe anaemia of malaria had no hematologic benefits. Several independent but overlapping conditions were associated with severe anaemia in Malawian children: bacteraemia, malaria, hookworm, HIV infection, vitamin A deficiency and vitamin B12 deficiency. The findings may help contribute to the assessment of new therapeutic and preventive strategies for Malawi and other parts of Africa.
The cumulative effect of malaria on an individual patient was difficult to access in the research as repeat infections are common during the rainy season and throughout the year in rural parts of Malawi.
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