INTRODUCTION:- Severe Acute Malnutrition affects nearly twenty million under five children, and contributes to one million child deaths yearly. The mortality rate of children with complicated SAM that receive treatment in inpatient set ups has remained unacceptably high. Such high mortality in inpatient units has been attributed to co-morbidities such as infections and micronutrient deficiencies. There is a lack of systematic reporting of clinical and laboratory data taken on admission or during hospital stay to identify baseline risk factors that allow comparative studies of the burden, spectrum and outcome of co-morbidities of severe malnutrition. Here we present a description of co-morbid findings in children admitted to a tertiary level hospital in central India.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the co-morbid conditions (Recurrent Gastrointestinal and Recurrent respiratory tract infections) associated with severe acute malnutrition.

METHODS: The present study was conducted at the Department of Paediatrics, Government Medical College, Kota (Rajasthan) for a period of one year from 1 January 2014 to 31 December 2014. A total number of 121 cases and 121 controls were admitted during the study period.

RESULTS:-Recurrent Gastrointestinal Tract Infection were found in 71 (58.68%) cases and in 16 (13.22%) controls difference was statistically significant, p value <0.0001, OR=9.3. Recurrent Respiratory Infections were found in 52 (42.97%) cases and in 22 (18.18%) controls difference was statistically significant p value < 0.0001, OR=3.3.

CONCLUSION:-Recurrent Gastrointestinal Tract Infections (Diarrhoea) and Recurrent Respiratory Infections are significant risk factors for Severe acute malnutrition. This should be prevented by integrated health package (Various health programmes are already functional in India by government e.g. ICDS, Anganwadi scheme, RBSK, Malnutrition Treatment Center).