© 1987 by Oxford University Press
research-article |
Genetic Content of Pediatric Practice in the Tropics
Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, The University of Ife Ile-Ife, Nigeria
The pattern of disease and death in the western world has chenged markedly in this century from diseases mainly of environmental stress to those of high genetic aetiology. In order to document the present load of genetic diseases in a typical tropical region and provide data that may be useful in national health planning, 1514 paediatric admissions in two large hospitals in Southern Nigeria have been reviewed and the diagnoses classified in groups of diminishing genetic aetiology.
Five per cent of the patients presented principally with diseases of genetic aetiology, i.e. effects of single gene, polygenic, chromosomal, and ‘probably genetic’ or multifactorial disorders. All the single gene disorders were due to intracorpuscular erythrocyte abnormalities. About 70 per cent of the primary and secondary diagnoses were due to diseases of high environmental influences out of which 80 per cent were due to infections alone. These figures are very different from those of similar studies in more developed countries.
We conclude that while the present practice of high priority given to environmentally related diseases in the tropical countries is reasonable, in the long range more attention should be given to disease of genetic aetiology through services for genetic counselling. Since these diseases tend to be repetitive and frequently require highly trained personnel for management and treatment their management is costly. Hence, preventive programmes should have higher priority.