Nutrition and infection
Abstract
The association of malnutrition and infectious disease (faminepestilence)
had been recognized since the beginning of human
history, but it was not until the late 1950s that such an interaction
was scientifically documented [I]. While the presence
of infection was recorded in the early descriptions of kwashiorkor,
the role of infection in the genesis of malnutrition was
generally overlooked. Synergistic and antagonistic models of
nutrition-infection interactions were described [1,2]. In synergism,
malnutrition exacerbates the outcome of infection, and
infection aggravates nutritional deficiency; the result supposedly
is greater than the summation of both factors. Synergism
occurs more frequently in developing countries because infectious
diseases are highly prevalent, and diets often are deficient
in quality or quantity. On the other hand, deficiency in one or
more nutrients needed by an infectious agent may impair its
replication, an antagonist interaction. While this condition can
be experimentally demonstrated [2], it is not generally observed
in humans in their undisturbed ecosystems. but it does
occur under extreme nutritional deprivation [3].
Long-term prospective field studies in poor rural populations
revealed the importance of nutrition-infection interactions in
determining morbidity, growth failure, acute malnutrition, and
mortality [4 —7] . Growth faltering invariably begins at about 3
to 6 months among infants at the breast in traditional societies.
or even earlier among infants prematurely weaned as in populations
in transition adopting bottle-feeding [8]. However, it
is not clear if stunting is primarily related to supplementation
with inadequate foods when mother's milk becomes insufficient,
or to infectious disease, or to an interaction of both [9].
Inadequate human milk supply without proper supplementation
is common in developing societies, but the striking event during
weaning is the occurrence of repetitive infectious diseases
capítulo de libro -- Universidad de Costa Rica, Instituto de Investigaciones en Salud. 1984.
Collections
- Nutrición [253]