Tropical Sprue in Haiti

THE FIRST DESCRIPTION of tropical sprue was presented over 2 centuries ago by Hillary from the island of Barbados in the West Indies (1, 2). Since that time, the presence of endemic tropical sprue in the West Indies has been thoroughly docu-mented on the islands of Cuba (3) and Puerto Rico (4, 5); however, the disease is alleged never to have been seen in Jamaica (4) and has not been reported from Haiti or other islands in the Caribbean. A recent nutritional survey by Sebrell and his associates (6) has indicated that a high prevalence of anemia and multiple nutritional deficiencies exists in the rural population of Haiti. In a preliminary study