among rural men ( . per cent) and women ( . per cent). Nutrition and infection: Providing enough food to fulfil nutritional requirements is not adequate.
The influence of environment is also important. Nutritional status does not depend only on sufficient supply of food and nutrients but also on the person’s health status, to a great extent. Nutrition and infection are intimately interlinked. Poor nutritional status decreases resistance and immunity, and thus increases risk of infection.
On the other hand, during infection, the body loses considerable amount of its nutrient reserves (through vomiting and diarrhoea), while the nutrient requirements are actually increased. If nutrient intake is insufficient compared to the requirement due to loss of appetite or inability to eat (if there is nausea and/or vomiting), infections will affect the nutritional status adversely. Thus the risk of another infection increases, and all persons, especially children, the elderly and those undernourished are at the risk of contracting more infections/diseases. In developing countries, food-borne illnesses such as diarrhoea and dysentery are major problems since they can lead to dehydration and death.
Many of the infectious and communicable diseases are due to poor environmental sanitation, poor household, personal and food hygiene. The key therefore is to look into how these diseases can be prevented.