Beri-beri: age-gender bias in The Gambia

Thiamine deficiency in pregnancy and lactation: implications and present perspectives

During pregnancy, many physiologic changes occur in order to accommodate fetal growth. These changes require an increase in many of the nutritional needs to prevent long-term consequences for both mother and the offspring. One of the main vitamins that are needed throughout the pregnancy is thiamine (vitamin B1) which is a water-soluble vitamin that plays an important role in many metabolic and physiologic processes in the human body. Thiamine deficiency during pregnancy can cause can have many cardiac, neurologic, and psychological effects on the mother. It can also dispose the fetus to gastrointestinal, pulmonological, cardiac, and neurologic conditions. This paper reviews the recently published literature about thiamine and its physiologic roles, thiamine deficiency in pregnancy, its prevalence, its impact on infants and subsequent consequences in them. This review also highlights the knowledge gaps within these topics.

Therapeutic landscapes of the Jola, The Gambia, West Africa

This paper contributes to the 'new' medical geography through its analysis of the therapeutic landscapes of the Jola of The Gambia. The paper advances the debate surrounding the conceptualization of medicine and health through a review of literature on African medicinal systems; it examines in detail the health care system of the Jola of The Gambia, documenting indigenous human and ethnoveterinary medical beliefs and practices and focusing in particular on the role of herbal medicine; and it discusses the interactions and links between indigenous medicine and biomedicine, thus demonstrating the importance of placing an understanding of health care systems in different places within an awareness of global power relations. The paper therefore links cultural perspectives with a political economy analysis, to highlight the importance of place and specificity of cultural context when investigating health care beliefs and practices. The intention of the paper is to present a theoretically informed empirical case study which reinforces the practical value of a 'new' medical geography.

Beriberi in a well-nourished Amazonian population

Beriberi is an endemic disease among the Naporuna indigenous people of Ecuadorean Amazonia (annual morbidity rate of 1.5%). A total of 47 patients with dry beriberi were seen at the Franklin Tello Hospital, Napo, during 1995-1996; a similar incidence was observed in previous years. No wet beriberi was found. Although the diagnosis of the disease was made clinically, an effective and quick response to thiamine treatment excluded other differential diagnoses, such as tropical ataxic neuropathy. Although indigenous people have several possible dietetic risk factors, none of them adequately explain the disease's high incidence. Some suggestions are made for the high incidence of beriberi among this Amazonian people but its cause remains unknown.