PEDIATRICS Vol. 17 No. 1 January 1956, pp. 121-137
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow P3Rs: Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when P3Rs are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow E-mail this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My File Cabinet
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via CrossRef
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Dean, R. F. A.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Dean, R. F. A.

THE PEDIATRICIAN AND THE PUBLIC

UNDERNUTRITION IN EAST AFRICA: A DESCRIPTION OF THE GROUP FOR RESEARCH IN INFANTILE MALNUTRITION OF THE MEDICAL RESEARCH COUNCIL, MULAGO HOSPITAL, KAMPALA, UGANDA

R. F. A. Dean M.R.C.P., Ph.D.

Editors: Paul Harper, M.D..

IN THE proper study of human nutrition, it is impossible to keep a limited objective, because the problems that at first sight appeared to be academic are quickly seen to be problems in ecology. The difficulty of selection of the most profitable lines of enquiry increases greatly, and the present account of the Infantile Malnutrition Group will probably be found to illustrate that difficulty only too well. As always happens in practice, the selection made was dominated to a large extent by familiarity with certain techniques, and other investigators with different techniques at their command would undoubtedly have chosen differently. The account also attempts to indicate the necessary scope of an enquiry into the effects of undernutrition on the development of the African child, and into the measures required to eradicate the undernutrition.

I. THE ORIGINS OF THE GROUP

1. Mulago Hospital Kampala

Early in 1951, the author and one assistant, a biochemist, arrived in Uganda. Their aim was to find to what extent some earlier work on the use of plant proteins, carried out in Germany shortly after the recent war, might be applicable to East Africa. It was at once obvious that nowhere in Uganda would it be possible to find an orphanage, or similar institution, where a collection of young children might be closely observed under controlled conditions.