Pernicious Anemia and Tropical Sprue

Sanitation, Disease Externalities and Anaemia: Evidence From Nepal

“…Although the link between open defaecation and enteropathy is less well understood than the link between open defaecation and intestinal worms, it is hypothesised that open defaecation exposes people to the kinds of bacteria that, when ingested in large quantities, lead to decreased absorption of micronutrients necessary for the production of haemoglobin (Walker, ; Nath, ; Humphrey, ) . Medical researchers have hypothesised a link between enteropathy and anaemia as long ago as the 1920s (Baumgartner and Smith, ).…”

The stomach in tropical sprue.

“…For many years it has been shown that hypochlorhydria and achlorhydria may occur in cases of tropical sprue (Baumgartner and Smith, 1927;Serra, 1929;Fairley, 1930). However, these observations were made before the development of standardized techniques for evaluating gastric secretion.…”

A classified bibliography on psychodietetics.

“…Sprue.-Until recently, sprue was considered a purely tropical disorder but Musser (224) thinks it will be found more and more prevalent in the United States as time goes on. Its similarity to pernicious anemia and pellagra has been noted by Baumgartner and Smith (218), Elders (220), Reed and Wyckoff (89), and Wood (226,227). The general opinion seems to be that sprue should be differentiated from these two diseases.…”

“…Mental and neurological symptoms (Ashford,215,217;Baumgartner and Smith,218;Musser,224;and Reed and Wyckoff,89) seem to be a part of the syndrome, among which have been mentioned asthenia, anorexia, " nervousness," pains in the body, pronounced depression, sleeplessness, mental hebetude, poor memory, nightmares, neuralgias, irritability, excitability, numbness and tingling, anesthesias, paresthesias and flexor contractions.…”