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      The impact of malnutrition on childhood infections

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          Abstract

          Purpose of review

          Almost half of all childhood deaths worldwide occur in children with malnutrition, predominantly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. This review summarizes the mechanisms by which malnutrition and serious infections interact with each other and with children's environments.

          Recent findings

          It has become clear that whilst malnutrition results in increased incidence, severity and case fatality of common infections, risks continue beyond acute episodes resulting in significant postdischarge mortality. A well established concept of a ‘vicious-cycle’ between nutrition and infection has now evolving to encompass dysbiosis and pathogen colonization as precursors to infection; enteric dysfunction constituting malabsorption, dysregulation of nutrients and metabolism, inflammation and bacterial translocation. All of these interact with a child's diet and environment. Published trials aiming to break this cycle using antimicrobial prophylaxis or water, sanitation and hygiene interventions have not demonstrated public health benefit so far.

          Summary

          As further trials are planned, key gaps in knowledge can be filled by applying new tools to re-examine old questions relating to immune competence during and after infection events and changes in nutritional status; and how to characterize overt and subclinical infection, intestinal permeability to bacteria and the role of antimicrobial resistance using specific biomarkers.

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          Most cited references50

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          Maternal and child undernutrition and overweight in low-income and middle-income countries

          The Lancet, 382(9890), 427-451
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            Burden and aetiology of diarrhoeal disease in infants and young children in developing countries (the Global Enteric Multicenter Study, GEMS): a prospective, case-control study.

            Diarrhoeal diseases cause illness and death among children younger than 5 years in low-income countries. We designed the Global Enteric Multicenter Study (GEMS) to identify the aetiology and population-based burden of paediatric diarrhoeal disease in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia. The GEMS is a 3-year, prospective, age-stratified, matched case-control study of moderate-to-severe diarrhoea in children aged 0-59 months residing in censused populations at four sites in Africa and three in Asia. We recruited children with moderate-to-severe diarrhoea seeking care at health centres along with one to three randomly selected matched community control children without diarrhoea. From patients with moderate-to-severe diarrhoea and controls, we obtained clinical and epidemiological data, anthropometric measurements, and a faecal sample to identify enteropathogens at enrolment; one follow-up home visit was made about 60 days later to ascertain vital status, clinical outcome, and interval growth. We enrolled 9439 children with moderate-to-severe diarrhoea and 13,129 control children without diarrhoea. By analysing adjusted population attributable fractions, most attributable cases of moderate-to-severe diarrhoea were due to four pathogens: rotavirus, Cryptosporidium, enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli producing heat-stable toxin (ST-ETEC; with or without co-expression of heat-labile enterotoxin), and Shigella. Other pathogens were important in selected sites (eg, Aeromonas, Vibrio cholerae O1, Campylobacter jejuni). Odds of dying during follow-up were 8·5-fold higher in patients with moderate-to-severe diarrhoea than in controls (odd ratio 8·5, 95% CI 5·8-12·5, p<0·0001); most deaths (167 [87·9%]) occurred during the first 2 years of life. Pathogens associated with increased risk of case death were ST-ETEC (hazard ratio [HR] 1·9; 0·99-3·5) and typical enteropathogenic E coli (HR 2·6; 1·6-4·1) in infants aged 0-11 months, and Cryptosporidium (HR 2·3; 1·3-4·3) in toddlers aged 12-23 months. Interventions targeting five pathogens (rotavirus, Shigella, ST-ETEC, Cryptosporidium, typical enteropathogenic E coli) can substantially reduce the burden of moderate-to-severe diarrhoea. New methods and accelerated implementation of existing interventions (rotavirus vaccine and zinc) are needed to prevent disease and improve outcomes. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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              The Immune System in Children with Malnutrition—A Systematic Review

              Background Malnourished children have increased risk of dying, with most deaths caused by infectious diseases. One mechanism behind this may be impaired immune function. However, this immune deficiency of malnutrition has not previously been systematically reviewed. Objectives To review the scientific literature about immune function in children with malnutrition. Methods A systematic literature search was done in PubMed, and additional articles identified in reference lists and by correspondence with experts in the field. The inclusion criteria were studies investigating immune parameters in children aged 1–60 months, in relation to malnutrition, defined as wasting, underweight, stunting, or oedematous malnutrition. Results The literature search yielded 3402 articles, of which 245 met the inclusion criteria. Most were published between 1970 and 1990, and only 33 after 2003. Malnutrition is associated with impaired gut-barrier function, reduced exocrine secretion of protective substances, and low levels of plasma complement. Lymphatic tissue, particularly the thymus, undergoes atrophy, and delayed-type hypersensitivity responses are reduced. Levels of antibodies produced after vaccination are reduced in severely malnourished children, but intact in moderate malnutrition. Cytokine patterns are skewed towards a Th2-response. Other immune parameters seem intact or elevated: leukocyte and lymphocyte counts are unaffected, and levels of immunoglobulins, particularly immunoglobulin A, are high. The acute phase response appears intact, and sometimes present in the absence of clinical infection. Limitations to the studies include their observational and often cross-sectional design and frequent confounding by infections in the children studied. Conclusion The immunological alterations associated with malnutrition in children may contribute to increased mortality. However, the underlying mechanisms are still inadequately understood, as well as why different types of malnutrition are associated with different immunological alterations. Better designed prospective studies are needed, based on current understanding of immunology and with state-of-the-art methods.
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                Author and article information

                Journal
                Curr Opin Infect Dis
                Curr. Opin. Infect. Dis
                COIDI
                Current Opinion in Infectious Diseases
                Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
                0951-7375
                1473-6527
                June 2018
                26 April 2018
                : 31
                : 3
                : 231-236
                Affiliations
                [a ]The Childhood Acute Illness & Nutrition (CHAIN) Network, Nairobi, Kenya
                [b ]Departments of Global Health, Medicine, Paediatrics and Epidemiology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA
                [c ]KEMRI/Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Kilifi, Kenya
                [d ]Centre for Tropical Medicine & Global Health, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
                Author notes
                Correspondence to James A. Berkley, FRCPCH, FMedSci, Professor of Paediatric Infectious Diseases, KEMRI/Wellcome Trust Research Programme, PO Box 230-80108, Kilifi, Kenya. E-mail: jberkley@ 123456kemri-wellcome.org
                Article
                QCO310308 00005
                10.1097/QCO.0000000000000448
                6037284
                29570495
                a90c7580-a323-4434-8fc7-3bd7465d1951
                Copyright © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.

                This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CCBY), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

                History
                Categories
                PAEDIATRIC AND NEONATAL INFECTIONS: Edited by Saul Faust
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                clinical trial,children,colonization,dysbiosis,environmental,growth,malnutrition,mortality,survival,susceptibility,undernutrition

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