what are the
Symptoms of Kwashiorkor?
Answers
malnutrition, fatigue, loss of appetite, or thirst
Gastrointestinal: bloating or diarrhoea
Also common: failure to thrive, severe unintentional weight loss, swelling in extremities, apathy, ear infections, hair loss, irritability, or skin rash
Answer:
Kwashiorkor is a form of severe protein malnutrition characterized by edema and an enlarged liver with fatty infiltrates.[1] It is caused by sufficient calorie intake, but with insufficient protein consumption, which distinguishes it from marasmus. Kwashiorkor cases occur in areas of famine or poor food supply.[2] Cases in the developed world are rare.[3]
Kwashiorkor
Starved girl.jpg
One of many children with kwashiorkor in relief camps during the Biafra War (Image courtesy of U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
Pronunciation
/kwɑːʃiˈɔːrkər/
Specialty
Pediatrics
Deaths
18
Jamaican pediatrician Cicely Williams introduced the term in 1935, two years after she published the disease's first formal description.[4][5] The name is derived from the Ga language of coastal Ghana, translated as "the sickness the baby gets when the new baby comes" or "the disease of the deposed child",[6] and reflecting the development of the condition in an older child who has been weaned from the breast when a younger sibling comes.[7] Breast milk contains amino acids vital to a child's growth. In at-risk populations, kwashiorkor may develop after a mother weans her child from breast milk, replacing it with a diet high in carbohydrates, such as a maize diet.[4]