Noma - the face of poverty!
Noma is not contagious.
Noma mainly affects children at the age between 2 and 6 living in underdeveloped countries. Affected children are generally malnourished, with very bad mouth hygiene and often suffer from malaria and/or infectious diseases (e.g. measles, rubella, typhoid fever, etc.)
With such adverse circumstances a stomatitis and/or a gingival infection (as well as teething) will lead to an acute necrotizing ulcerative gingivitis (ANUG = is a sub-classification of necrotizing periodontal disease).
Yearly approx. 100,000 children suffer from Noma. The mortality rate is very high, at 80%. Worldwide every six minutes a child dies from Noma. This disease thrives only in the poorest countries in the world, most are located in sub-Saharan Africa. It can not be repeated often enough: Noma flowers only at the poorest of the poor - Noma is in the truest sense of the word the face of poverty!
- Definition / general
- Causes / frequency
- Complaints
- Treatment / complications / mortality
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