Survivors suffer threefold: disfigurement, functional impairment and social stigma.
This terrible, disfiguring and lethal disease mainly affects children aged 1 to 6, but late stages have also been observed in adolescents and adults. From studies in Nigeria it can clearly be seen that it affects children suffering from malnutrition and that affluent sectors of the population are spared. It is clear that it has to be seen as "a socioeconomic disease afflicting preferentially the deprived malnourished children in poor and mostly rural communities" (Reshma S Phillips et al. 2005)
Incidence of noma
The disease has virtually been eradicated from Europe and other countries with a high standard of living. It reappeared however in Nazi concentration camps (Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz) during World War II, where food shortages were particularly prevalent. The disease has also been documented in HIV/AIDS infected patients from developed nations. A retired 68-year-old man from Great Britain was reported in a study from 2006 as suffering from noma.
However, the majority of people suffering from noma live in sub-Saharan countries. Cases are also reported from other countries in Africa, Asia and also in Latin America.
It is estimated (according to WHO in 1998) that 140,000 individuals yearly are infected by noma and that 100,000 of these are children between 1 and 7 living in sub-Saharan Africa.
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