TITLE:
Frequency of Hypovitaminosis D in 6 - 59 Month Children with Severe Malaria in the Pediatrics Unit of the Teaching Hospital of Parakou (CHUD/BA) in Benin in 2016
AUTHORS:
Alphonse Noudamadjo, Julien Didier Adédémy, Joseph Agossou, Gratien Godonou Sagbo, Falilatou Agbeille, Gérard Kpanidja, Jacques Assoklé, Simon Akpona
KEYWORDS:
Hypovitaminosis D, Severe Malaria, Children, Benin
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Pediatrics,
Vol.8 No.1,
March
10,
2018
ABSTRACT: Introduction: Vitamin D’s action outside of bone, especially on
immunity, is widely reported in the international scientific literature over
the last years. Objective: Calculate the frequency of hypovitaminosis D
in children aged 6 to 59 months suffering from severe malaria in the CHUD-P
pediatric unit in 2016. Setting and Methods: This research work is a
cross-sectional study with descriptive and analytical purposes. Data gathering
was prospective. The study involved children aged 6 to 59 months hospitalized
for severe malaria in the CHUD-P pediatric unit. The said children were
HIV-uninfected, eutrophic and had not received vitamin D supplementation during
the last 6 months. Vitamin D dose was measured using the High Performance
Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) technique. Results: A total of 80 subjects
were involved in the survey. Mean age was 26.08 months, sex ratio was 0.8 and
average weight was 10.80 kg. Hypovitaminosis D frequency was 83.8% (67 cases
out of 80 children investigated during the survey) with an average plasma
concentration of vitamin D estimated at 21.57 ng/ml ± 7.34 with two extremes
(11.24 - 42.32) ng/ml. The minimum parasitaemia was 202 P/μl
and the maximum was 580,000 P/μl. Conclusion: Hypovitaminosis D is
common in children suffering from severe malaria; this result suggests
conducting a large-scale community-based study to decide on vitamin D inclusion
in national supplementation policies and severe malaria management.