Table 4. Pathologic mechanism in Malawian children with severe anaemia by main etiological factors present on hospital admission.
| Mechanisms | Etiological factors† | ||||||||||
| Infection | Nutrition | ||||||||||
| Malaria | HIV | Bacteraemia | Hook-worm | Iron status | Vitamin B12 | Vitamin A | |||||
| Positive | Positive | Positive | Positive | Deficient | Deficient | Deficient | |||||
| all | No other infection | all | No other infection | all | No other infection | all | No other infection | ||||
| 145 | 87 | 31 | 7 | 35 | 13 | 23 | 12 | 73 | 62 | 148 | |
| Red Cell Production Failure, % (n) | 42.1 (61) | 40.2 (35) | 38.7 (12) | 85.7 (6) | 48.6 (17) | 30.8 (4) | 52.2 (12) | 66.7 (8) | 50.7 (37) | 59.7 (37) | 44.6 (66) |
| Haemolysis, % (n) | 17.9 (26) | 17.2 (15) | 19.4 (6) | 28.6 (2) | 25.7 (9) | 38.5 (5) | 13.0 (3) | 8.3 (1) | 13.7 (10) | 22.6 (14) | 22.3 (33) |
| Non Defined, % (n) | 41.4 (60) | 43.7 (38) | 48.4 (15) | 14.3 (1) | 25.7 (9) | 30.8 (4) | 26.1 (6) | 25.0 (3) | 37.0 (27) | 24.2 (15) | 39.2 (58) |
‘all’ = all children with the indicated infection as a single infection or part of multiple infections ‘No other infection’ = Children with the indicated infection only (as single infection).
†
Folate deficiency (<3.0 µg/L) was not found and therefore not included in the table. Concentrations of vitamin B12<200 ng/L and vitamin A<20 µg/dL were considered deficient. Note that discrepancies between total numbers given (in column top number) and the sum of mechanisms in the respective column are due to overlap and excluding the ‘blood loss’ group (blood loss group was excluded because only a small number (n = 17) fulfilled the definition).