How Eliminating Malaria May Also Prevent Iron Deficiency in African Children (original) (raw)
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Iron Status and Associated Malaria Risk Among African Children
Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, 2018
It remains unclear whether improving iron status increases malaria risk, and few studies have looked at the effect of host iron status on subsequent malaria infection. We therefore aimed to determine whether a child's iron status influences their subsequent risk of malaria infection in sub-Saharan Africa. We assayed iron and inflammatory biomarkers from community-based cohorts of 1309 Kenyan and 1374 Ugandan children aged 0 - 7 years and conducted prospective surveillance for episodes of malaria. Poisson regression models were fitted to determine the effect of iron status on the incidence rate ratio of malaria using longitudinal data covering a period of 6 months. Models were adjusted for age, sex, parasitemia, inflammation and study site. At baseline, the prevalence of iron deficiency (ID) was 36.9% and 34.6% in Kenyan and Ugandan children, respectively. Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) affected 23.6% of Kenyan and 17.6% of Ugandan children. Malaria risk was lower in children with ...
Decline in childhood iron deficiency after interruption of malaria transmission in highland Kenya
The American journal of clinical nutrition, 2014
Achieving optimal iron status in children in malaria-endemic areas may increase the risk of malaria. Malaria itself may contribute to iron deficiency, but the impact of an interruption in malaria transmission on the prevalence of iron deficiency is unknown. We aimed to determine whether 1) iron status improved in children living in 2 Kenyan villages with a documented cessation in malaria transmission and 2) changes in iron status correlated with changes in hemoglobin. We measured iron [hemoglobin, ferritin, soluble transferrin receptor (sTfR)] and inflammatory [C-reactive protein (CRP)] markers in paired plasma samples from 190 children aged 4-59 mo at the beginning (May 2007) and end (July 2008) of a documented 12-mo period of interruption in malaria transmission in 2 highland areas in Kenya with unstable malaria transmission and ongoing malaria surveillance. Between May 2007 and July 2008, mean (±SD) hemoglobin increased from 10.8 ± 1.6 to 11.6 ± 1.6 g/dL. Median (25th, 75th perce...
Wellcome Open Research
Iron deficiency presents a major public health concern in many malaria-endemic regions, and both conditions affect young children most severely. Daily iron supplementation is the standard public health intervention recommended to alleviate rates of iron deficiency in children, but there is controversy over whether universal supplementation could increase the incidence and severity of malaria infection. Current evidence suggests that iron supplementation of deficient individuals is safe and effective in high-transmission settings when accompanied by malaria prevention strategies. However, low-resource settings often struggle to effectively control the spread of malaria, and it remains unclear whether supplementation of iron replete individuals could increase their risk of malaria and other infections. This review explores the evidence for and against universal iron supplementation programmes, and alternative strategies that could be used to alleviate iron deficiency in malaria-endemi...