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SAVE THE BABIES
Steve Hammond2/10/2006
ASIAN babies should be given free vitamin supplements to stop the spread a deforming disease says a north west doctor.
Paediatrician Christos Zipitis has made the call following the
shock results of his research into the rickets - a disease which
softens bones and leads to physical deformities including bow legs
and twisted spines.
Dr Zipitis, who works at Burnley General Hospital, found that Asian
babies and young children are around 10 times more likely to get
the disease than white youngsters.
He also discovered that the number of cases of rickets and convulsions in babies shot up after NHS chiefs stopped the supply of free vitamin supplements to new born babies.
Rickets, once a common disease associated with poverty, is caused
by a lack of vitamin D, which is vital to healthy growth.
Dr Zipitis examined every case of children treated at Burnley
General for rickets and associated conditions like convulsions from
1994 to 2005.
He found that all but one of the 14 afflicted children were of Asian origin.
Other research has shown that cultural factors lie behind the
problem.
The main source of vitamin D is sunshine. Asian parents tend to
keep their children indoors more and when they do go out they tend
to be more covered-up than white children. This aplies especially
to girls.
Asian mothers also tend to breast feed their babies longer than
white mothers and their babies miss out on the benefits of powdered
baby milk which often contains vitamin supplements.
In an article on his findings Dr Zipits warns: "Since funding for
the provision of supplementary vitamins was discontinued....the
number of children seen in the paediatric department with clinical
or biochemical signs of vitamin D deficiency has greatly
increased."
He notes that Asian children accounted for 93 per cent of vitamin D
deficiency cases.
He says: "We..suggest that supplementation with vitamin D of all
babies of Asian origin for the first two years of life might be
the....answer to the problem."
What goes for the Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale area is almost
certain the case for the whole of the north west where research by
other child specialists have revealed the particular vulnerability
of the Asian community to rickets.
But the suggestion that the Asian community should get preferential
treatment could be controversial.
Dr Zipitis said: "I would be great if all children could get the
supplement but it would only be cost effective if they were given
to the high risk population only, which is Asian.
"Positive discrimination in the health service is not new. For
example Asian children are offered an anti tuberculosis vaccination
which is not on offer to white children because they are not
considered high risk. This works perfectly well."
He said vitamin D deficiency was far more common in the Asian
population than his research suggested.
"We know from children turning up in the primary care sector that
there are many more cases out there."
Symptoms of rickets are bow legs, lumpy bones in the chest and
deformed spines. These condition can easily be reversed by proper
treatment.
Vitamin D supplements are readily available from chemists.
Added Dr Zipitis: "If mothers have any concerns on this score they
should visit their GP with their child."
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3/10/2006 at 16:15
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5/10/2006 at 11:50