Systemic Inflammation and Growth following Acute Illness in Children.

Medical and nutritional management in acutely-ill undernourished children in developing countries aim to support rapid weight gain. However, such children remain at risk of death and poor catch-up growth post-hospital discharge. Little is known about mechanisms regulating childhood growth after acute illness.

I hypothesise that persistent systemic inflammation (SI) is a key determinant of growth post-discharge among undernourished children.

SI is associated with reduced linear growth in community cohorts, and is demonstrable at hospital discharge among undernourished children, potentially indicating untreated infections, microbiota dysbiosis, gut-circulation microbial product translocation, or enteric inflammation.

My proposed work is nested within the CHAIN cohort that aims to characterise modifiable risks for mortality among acutely-ill children