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Query: UMLS:C0240066 (iron deficiency)
 7,156 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Hunger and malnutrition in Africa have been on the increase since the 1960s. During the 1970s, it is estimated that 30 million people were directly affected by famine and malnutrition. About 5 million children died in 1984 alone. In Mozambique during the 1983-84 famine, about 100,000 people perished. In Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, Liberia, and Angola armed conflicts compound the problem. Ethiopia alone had 9 million famine victims in 1983. The most common form of malnutrition in Africa is protein energy deficiency affecting over 100 million people, especially 30-50 million children under 5 years of age. Almost another 200 million are at risk. Iron deficiency, commonly called anemia, also affects 150 million people, mostly women and children. Iodine deficiency leads to disorders like mental retardation, cretinism, deafness, abortion, low resistance to disease, and goiter and this affects 60 million with about 150 million more at risk. Vitamin A deficiency causes blindness and low resistance to disease and affects about 10 million. Protein energy deficiency is treated by using donated foods in hospitals, rehabilitation centers, day care centers, and feeding centers. There are no community programs for anemia, or vitamin A or iodine deficiencies. Vaccines for preventing and drugs for treating diseases that cause malnutrition are imported. Therefore, African food and nutrition professionals met in 1988 and created the Africa Council for Food and Nutrition Sciences (AFRONUS) to eliminate famine and malnutrition in Africa. Activities have started in: 1) developing contacts between the workers in food and nutrition; 2) assessing the situation of food and nutrition in Africa; 3) developing an action plan; 4) implementing the plan; and 5) monitoring progress. Food and Nutrition Policy Guidelines have also been prepared by AFRONUS for food and nutrition workers. Africa has enough natural resources to solve the problem of hunger and malnutrition, but these resources have to be harnessed.
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PMID:Hunger and malnutrition: the determinant of development: the case for Africa and its food and nutrition workers. 139 7

The influences of iron deficiency on the cochlear iron enzymes and adenosine triphosphatase were studied in 68 iron-deficient rats and 68 control rats (normal and with chronic anemia). A disorderly or topographic distribution and reduction or disappearance of the cochlear succinic dehydrogenase and peroxidase reaction products were found in 37.8% of the rats fed on a basic iron-deficient diet for 14 to 100 days. The activity of cochlear sodium-potassium-dependent adenosine triphosphatase in iron-deficient rats was slightly increased, compared to that in normal controls. These results suggest that iron deficiency would produce significant abnormalities of succinic dehydrogenase and peroxidase activity, which in turn would disturb cell respiration and initiate peroxidative damage to the inner ear cells, result in sensorineural hearing loss, or provide a pathologic basis for cochlear deafness.
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PMID:Changes in the cochlear iron enzymes and adenosine triphosphatase in experimental iron deficiency. 217 94