Details - Public Health Image Library(PHIL)

ID#:

6879

Caption:

This historic late 1960s photograph, was captured inside what had been a Nigerian refugee relief camp during the Nigerian-Biafran war. This scenario depicted a very young malnourished child, who was eating his protein-rich meal with gusto, given his state of starvation. Note his distended belly, as a result of kwashiorkor, caused by the lack of protein in his diet. During the conflict, many of the children who were weak and listless needed a lot of nursing care to survive. These relief camps provided feeding wards where doctors, like the National Communicable Disease Center (NCDC) Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) officer, Godfrey Oakley, were on call 24-hours a day, monitoring 100 or more, malnourished, stage-four kwashiorkor children. Kwashiorkor sufferers, due to their inadequate dietary protein intake, also show signs of thinning, depigmented hair, or flag sign, edema, inadequate growth, and weight loss.

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Content Provider(s):

CDC/ Dr. Lyle Conrad

Creation Date:

Photo Credit:

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Categories:

CDC Organization