Chronic Pathologies Associated with Severe Acute Malnutrition in Children Hospitalised at the Ureni Reference Health Centre in Commune V

Abstract

Introduction: The objective was to study chronic pathologies associated with severe acute malnutrition in children aged 6 to 59 months hospitalized at URENI. Methodology: This was a retrospective, descriptive and analytical study running from January 1 to December 31, 2017. Results: During the study period 352 children were hospitalized for severe acute malnutrition at the URENI of the CSREF CV. Among them, 18 presented a chronic pathology, i.e. a frequency of 5.11%. The male gender was predominant, i.e. 61.1% with a sex ratio of 1.57. The 12-24 month age group represented 50% of cases. Thirty-three percent of children had a history of neonatal resuscitation and 16.7% were formerly premature babies. Marasmus was of the severe acute malnutrition type the most represented, i.e. 77.8% of the cases. The association of malnutrition with HIV infection and Cerebral Palsy (CP) were accounted for 27.8% each. More than half of the patients (55.6%) stayed between 15 - 21 days in the structure. Conclusion: HIV infection and cerebral palsy constitute the chronic pathologies most associated with severe acute malnutrition in children at the Csref of commune V.