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Burden of infection on growth failure
1U.S. Department of Agriculture Western Human Nutrition Research Center, UC Davis Department of Nutrition, University of California, 95616-8669, USA.
Insights
Infections in children from developing countries significantly stunt linear growth by impacting nutrition and bone development. Interventions like sanitation, vaccination, and nutritional support are vital for healthy child development.
Area of Science:
- Pediatrics
- Infectious Diseases
- Public Health
Background:
- High infection rates in developing countries' impoverished children impair linear growth.
- Both acute (e.g., pneumonia) and chronic (e.g., helminths) infections negatively affect child development.
Purpose of the Study:
- To analyze how infections impact linear growth in children.
- To identify effective interventions to mitigate growth impairment caused by infections.
Main Methods:
- Literature review on infection's impact on linear growth.
- Analysis of nutritional and physiological mechanisms linking infection and growth.
- Evaluation of preventive and therapeutic intervention strategies.
Main Results:
- Infections impair linear growth through nutritional deficits (reduced intake, absorption, increased losses) and altered metabolism.
- Systemic inflammation and cytokine production disrupt bone remodeling processes.
- Direct viral infection of bone cells can also inhibit linear growth.
Conclusions:
- Preventive measures (sanitation, vaccination, breastfeeding) are crucial.
- Prompt infection treatment and nutritional support are essential for recovery and growth.
- Targeted helminth control benefits public health by reducing infection and malnutrition's long-term effects.
Abstract:
The high prevalence of infections among children living in poor areas of developing countries impairs linear growth in these populations. Acute, invasive infections, which provoke a systemic response (e.g., dysentery and pneumonia), and chronic infections, which affect the host over a sustained period (e.g., gut helminth infections), have a substantial effect on linear growth. Such infections can diminish linear growth by affecting nutritional status. This occurs because infections may decrease food intake, impair nutrient absorption, cause direct nutrient losses, increase metabolic requirements or catabolic losses of nutrients and, possibly, impair transport of nutrients to target tissues. In addition, induction of the acute phase response and production of proinflammatory cytokines may directly affect the process of bone remodeling that is required for long bone growth. Infection of cells directly involved in bone remodeling (osteoclasts or osteoblasts) by specific viruses may also directly affect linear growth. Many interventions are possible to diminish the effect of infection on growth. Prevention of disease through sanitation, vector control, promotion of breast-feeding and vaccination is crucial. Appropriate treatment of infections (e.g., antibiotics for pneumonia) as well as supportive nutritional therapy (again including breast-feeding) during and after recovery, is also important. Targeted therapeutic interventions to decrease the prevalence of gut helminth infections may also be appropriate in areas in which such infections are widespread. Such interventions are of public health benefit not only because they reduce the incidence or severity of infections, but also because they decrease the long-term detrimental effect of malnutrition on populations.