eileen

http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=3771475

The sun never shines on inner city toddlers, that's why they've frail bones

April 09, 2007 Edition 1
Alex Eliseev
Rising crime levels may be having a tragic health spin-off for inner city children, as the bone disease rickets returns.
Parents living in flats are keeping their toddlers indoors so much - for fear of crime - that the children's bodies are not getting enough vital sunshine and are falling prey to rickets.
The war against rickets - a disease which prevents human bones from hardening and can cause painful deformations or fractures. - was won in the early 1900s, as doctors cracked the ultraviolet light and vitamin D deficiency enigmas. The main causes of rickets are lack of sunlight or calcium, and those most affected are toddlers between 18 months and two years old.
John Pettifor heads Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital's paediatrics department and has been studying rickets for over 30 years. He has written 150 papers on the disease and runs a monthly clinic at the Johannesburg Hospital.
"My impression from the last few years is that there has been an increase," Pettifor says.
He explains that most of the cases are from inner city suburbs like Joubert Park or Hillbrow, where mothers are too scared to let their children play outside.
He gives an example of a Hillbrow mother who lives and works in the same high-rise building and has a 2-year-old child suffering from rickets.
"She lives in a flat on the 13th floor and sends her child to a creche on the third floor. Day in and day out, her child never goes outside," Pettifor said.
Although he deals with only a handful of cases each year, Pettifor feels that parents need to be aware of the dangers.