Malaria: nutritional implications

Abstract

Epidemiologic and immunologic factors determine the impact of malaria on the demography and economics of human communities. Where malaria is epidemiologically stable, its effects are most obvious in young children; adults, because of acquired immunity, are much less affected and remain an economically viable workforce. Where the disease is unstable, it affects all age groups and may incapacitate adults enough to impede food production seriously. Three areas are identified in which malaria may adversely affect host nutrition: low birth weight, the development of protein energy malnutrition, and the pathogenesis of anemia. The influence of host nutrition on malarial infections is considered. The view is expressed that, although deficiencies of some dietary factors may potentiate the resistance to malaria conferred by some genetic traits, there is as yet little convincing evidence that malnutritional states in humans materially enhance the severity or lethality of plasmodial infections.