SALAH ALI TAHA The Prevalence and Severity of Protein-Calorie Malnutrition in Sudanese Children

One thousand two hundred and ninety-one Sudanese children aged six months to four years, living in the Gezira, a farming community considered to be prosperous relative to other parts of the Sudan, were examined. Clinical and anthropometric measure-ments were recorded. These showed a tendency to drop below Caucasian standards of weight, height, mid-arm circumference and triceps skinfold thick-ness, starting about the age of six months. Only 47% of the children were found to be well nourished; of the remainder 1 % had severe, 17 % moderate and 35 % mild protein-calorie malnutrition. Together with the data collected from two other different areas, the findings of this study indicate that mal-nutrition is a grave paediatric problem in the Sudan