Indian Pediatrics - Editorial

Letters to the Editor

Indian Pediatrics 2003; 40:595

Anemia in Adolescent Girls: A Preliminary Report from Semi Urban Nepal

I read with great interest the brief report by Shah and Gupta(1). I would like to have some clarifications regarding this study.

(i) Worm infestations is one of the major cause of iron deficiency anemia. Sarkar et al.(2) have shown the effect of deworming to prevent and improve the iron deficiency anemia. In your study there were only 27 cases.

(ii) Malaria is a common endemic infection that has definite impact as far as iron deficiency anemia is concerned(3). How many girls were having this infection in this brief report?

(iii) Marginal iron deficiency anemia cases take the form of overt anemia mentioned by you. Under what circumstances severe changes take place. Give the number of such cases in this brief report. Severity of anemia was not mentioned in the report.

(iv) You have mentioned about the absence of hyperpigmentation in these 209 girls. Was there any case in your report having megaloblastic anemia and absence of hyperpigmentation?

Jaswir Singh,
Department of Pediatrics,
Rajendra Hospital,
Patiala 147 001, India.

REFERENCES

1. Shah BK, Gupta P. Anemia in adolescent girls: A preliminary report from semi-urban Nepal. Indian Pediatr 2002; 39: 1126-1130.

2. Sarkar RN, Anwar KS, Biswas BK, Manan AM. Effect of deworming on nutritional status of ascaris infested slum children of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Indian Pediatr 2002; 39: 1021-1026.

3. Zlotkin S. Current issues for the prevention and treatment of iron deficiency anemia. Indian Pediatr, 2002; 39: 125-129.