[Pellagra: a disease resurging in Zaire. A study of 231 cases (author's transl)]

231 cases of pellagra among 8,000 consulting patients has been observed from May 1977 to June 1978 in the Dermatological Dispensary of the Hospital G.E.C.A.-Mines of Lumbumbashi (Zaire). This disease by nutritional deficiency can be easily recognized especially through its dermatological symptomatology. It occurs mainly in young patients fed solely on maize, but the most severe cases have been observed in prisoners. Three age groups seem particularly prone to pellagra: children after weaning, pubescent adolescents in quick growing age, grown-up women during pregnancy and lactation. Vitaminotherapy is effective in a few days; a simultaneous treatment of intestinal parasites has to be required. The incidence of this endemic pellagra worsened after the war of May 1978, reaching 7 p. 100 among the population around the main towns of the province Shaba.