Rickets rise linked to mothers who cover up
July 4, 2005
Childhood rickets is soaring in Australia, particularly among babies born to mothers who cover up for religious and cultural reasons or who have dark skin, an expert says.
The number of cases has doubled at three Sydney hospitals between 2002 and 2003 and specialists in Melbourne and Adelaide have recounted similar experiences, pediatric endocrinologist Chris Cowell says.
All but five of the 126 cases reported by the three Sydney hospitals in the 11 years to 2003 occurred in immigrant families.
The rise coincided with an increase in immigration by people of North African, Middle Eastern and Indian heritage, a study has found.
Rickets, a bone softening disease which causes seizures, bowed legs and bone pain, was common among children in Europe during the industrial revolution, when factory smoke blocked the ultraviolet rays from the sun, reducing vitamin D levels.
Vitamin D is important in helping bones absorb calcium and low levels can cause rickets.
Professor Cowell, of the Children's Hospital at Sydney's Westmead, said that in the past 20 to 30 years, Australian doctors had seen a "very small" number of cases of childhood rickets.
But the rate had risen in the past four or five years in line with increasing immigration from countries where women often wear veils or have darker skin types.
The darker the skin, the harder it is to produce vitamin D, requiring more time to be spent in the sun.
- AAP