Prevention of Communicable Diseases in Children

Abstract

It has been rightly said that the diseases responsible for the heavy mortality in young age groups in the tropics are preventable. In many countries of the Western world, where similar mortality occurred not so very long ago, these diseases have been eradicated. Hospital records show that the commonest causes of death in children in the tropics are malnutrition, gastro-enteritis and respiratory infection. Of these, protein-calorie malnutrition is the most widespread; by lowering the body’s resistance to infection it not only facilitates infection, but also allows it to spread unchecked and become severe, resulting in early death. Thus, not only is infection commonly associated with malnutrition, but also malnourished children easily become gravely ill and do not respond easily to treatment. Besides these three main causes of death, which are responsible for about 60 per cent of childhood mortality, the other common causes of death are malaria, anaemia, tuberculosis, infectious diseases of childhood like measles and whooping cough, hookworm and other parasitic infestations and accidents, mainly burns.