Frequency of Hypovitaminosis D in 6 - 59 Month Children with Severe Malaria in the Pediatrics Unit of the Teaching Hospital of Parakou (CHUD/BA) in Benin in 2016

Introduction: Vitamin D’s action outside of bone, especially onimmunity, is widely reported in the international scientific literature overthe last years. Objective: Calculate the frequency of hypovitaminosis Din children aged 6 to 59 months suffering from severe malaria in the CHUD-Ppediatric unit in 2016. Setting and Methods: This research work is across-sectional study with descriptive and analytical purposes. Data gatheringwas prospective. The study involved children aged 6 to 59 months hospitalizedfor severe malaria in the CHUD-P pediatric unit. The said children wereHIV-uninfected, eutrophic and had not received vitamin D supplementation duringthe last 6 months. Vitamin D dose was measured using the High PerformanceLiquid Chromatography (HPLC) technique. Results: A total of 80 subjectswere involved in the survey. Mean age was 26.08 months, sex ratio was 0.8 andaverage weight was 10.80 kg. Hypovitaminosis D frequency was 83.8% (67 casesout of 80 children investigated during the survey) with an average plasmaconcentration of vitamin D estimated at 21.57 ng/ml ± 7.34 with two extremes(11.24 - 42.32) ng/ml. The minimum parasitaemia was 202 P/μland the maximum was 580,000 P/μl. Conclusion: Hypovitaminosis D iscommon in children suffering from severe malaria; this result suggestsconducting a large-scale community-based study to decide on vitamin D inclusionin national supplementation policies and severe malaria management.