The Malnutrition–Infection Complex and its Environment Factors

Study of the genesis of malnutrition in contemporary traditional and transitional societies clearly reveals that malnutrition is a man-made condition or social disease.Apparently, malnutrition does not occur among wild animals living in small population groups (Van Lawick-Goodhall, 1971) appearing only as a consequence of congenital defects, injury, natural or man-made disaster or abrupt changes in climatic conditions which upset food supply and the ecosystem in It seems probable that ancestral man organized in small groups of hunters and gatherers did not suffer from endemic malnutrition as it is observed today in developing nations (Mata & Mohs, 1976).Feeding practices then ensured a varied diet, while the smallness of the tribe accounted for a rapid extinction of pathogenic organisms entering into the group once susceptibles became immune or died.Breast-feeding was customary as it still is in traditional societies (Mata, 1978), while ablactation probably was accompanied by a significant infant mortality which eliminated the less fit.Exposure to pathogenic micro-organisms depended on intertribal contacts, and experience with some agents was never gained.In fact, the pre-Columbian Amerindians, not knowing measles, smallpox and other debilitating infectious agents, became decimated once exposure to them was provided by Europeans (Dubos, 1959).The success of man in taming the environment and proliferating wherever he set foot eventually led to the establishment of sedentary societies, often near rivers.As they grew in size, a systematic and progressive elimination of wildlife, destruction of forests, erosion of soil and formation of barren soil and desert was ensured (Eckholm, 1976).general. The environment of the malnourished childIn this historic evolution, some environments were more favourable than others to man's progress and development.The richness of the soil, the existence of marked seasonal variation, and other related features, for inetance in Scandinavia, North America and Russia, probably interfered with malnutrition-infection forces and permitted an easier attainment of civilization.The present concentration of poverty and malnutrition in the tropical and subtropical belts in contemporary times, is clear evidence that the location (latitude) and climate of a given territory have been important determinants of malnutrition.In these regions the environment offers conditions favourable to the endemicity of malnutrition and infection (Mata, 1976).