BMJ  2008;336:1038-1039 (10 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.39570.659016.DB

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Campaigners draw attention to disfiguring childhood disease

¹ London

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

A campaign has been launched to combat a childhood oral disease that occurs in areas of extreme poverty and malnutrition.

The World Health Organisation estimates that there are about 100 000 cases a year worldwide of noma (cancrum oris), an opportunist infectious childhood oral disease, with an 80% fatality rate. Its survivors are left so badly scarred that often they are ostracised from their communities. It mainly affects young children with micronutrient deficiencies and starts as gingivitis that turns into necrotising ulcerative tissue or an undetected oedema in the cheek. The infection develops rapidly in a few days before becoming irreversible because of weakening natural defences.

The No Noma Federation, a coalition of charities and organisations united to fight the disease, has been set up to improve prevention, detection, research, and medical and surgical management.

The Swiss consultant psychiatrist Bertrand Piccard, president of the No Noma Federation, previously established the . . . [Full text of this article]

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