CHANGES IN WEIGHT-GAIN AND ANEMIA ATTRIBUTABLE TO MALARIA IN TANZANIAN CHILDREN LIVING UNDER HOLOENDEMIC CONDITIONS

We investigated the effect of Plasmodium falciparum malaria on weight gain and haematocrit in Tanzanian children aged 6-40 months following a malaria control scheme which combined insecticide-impregnated bed ne ts with chloroquine chemotherapy on demand. Data from 7 villages (3 in tervention and 4 control) were collected before, and one year after, t he implementation of the programme. Initially, 82% of the children wer e parasitaemic, 78% were anaemic (i.e., packed cell volume <33%) and 3 8% were underweight (i.e., 2 standard deviations below their weight-fo r-age 2 score). One year after implementation of the programme, childr en not protected by the bed nets grew 286 g less (95% confidence inter val [CI] 171-402 g) in a 5 months period and were twice as likely to b e anaemic (95% CI 1.4-2.7) than were children not using impregnated be d nets. Our results indicated that, under holoendemic conditions, P. f alciparum infection has a marked effect on both weight gain and anaemi a.