Below are the citation and extracts of an article in the current issue of Archives of Disease of Childhood. CHIFA (and HIFA) are grateful to have had David Morley, Paget Stanfield, David Werner, Zef Ebrahim and many other pioneers contributing to our discussions over the years.
CITATION: Pioneers of comprehensive paediatric care in the developing world
Hafiz Elshazali
Correspondence to Dr Osama Hafiz Elshazali, Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, University of Khartoum, Khartoum, Sudan; o.elshazali@uofk.edu
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2022-324404
Introduction
The mid-20th century brought about a complete rethink of the causes of and interventions pertaining to child malnutrition. Pioneers included, among others, Zef Ebrahim, Derek and Patrice Jelliffe, and David Werner working in child health globally; David Sanders in Zimbabwe; Maurice King in Zambia; James Paget Stanfield in East Africa; and Mabelle and Raj Arole in India.
This paper describes the lives and legacies of three paediatricians in particular, whose careers coincided and intertwined in sub-Saharan Africa, between the 1930s and 1970s. Their approach, with the other pioneers, helped sculpt the philosophy behind current nutritional rehabilitation, and the effect they had on paediatricians and millions of children, especially in low-income countries, has been long lasting and reverberates to this very day...
Cicely D. Williams (1893–1992) [recognised] ‘kwashiorkor’, translated as ‘disease of the child displaced from the mother’s back’. She concluded that it was due to a lack of protein in the diets of weaning children after the arrival of a new baby, and published this in 1933...
David Morley (1923–2009), another giant of paediatrics, graduated from Cambridge University and St Thomas Medical School in 1947. His initial exposure to practising in the developing world was during his posting in Nigeria in the early 1960s. During his time, there he developed a comprehensive service for village children, and he produced two major innovations: the under-fives clinic and the road to health chart...
Dr Neil Pakenham-Walsh, HIFA Coordinator
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