Kwashiorkor was first described in 1932 by Dr Cicely Williams, working with African children on the Gold Coast.
Williams identified a relationship between the low-protein maize diet of the children and the occurrence of the syndrome. During her research she observed that mothers and families were reluctant to share their knowledge of the disease, sought ‘traditional healers’ and sometimes abandoned sick children for the sake of the family.
In 1933, classical kwashiorkor was first described in the literature as a ‘well marked syndrome of the deposed infant’.
In the 1950s kwashiorkor dominated medical research agendas in South Africa and also in the international arena.
At that time, World Health Organization concluded that kwashiorkor was the most nutritional disorder and fixed on protein deficiency as the problem to solve.
Milk was a good food for recovery but milk was not always available. Into the 1970s, nutritionists focused on the development of high protein foods for weaning.
Nowadays the term ‘kwashiorkor’ is used less frequently and exerts tend to speak more generally of protein-energy malnutrition (PEM).
History of Kwashiorkor
