In October 1949 the United Nations brought a number of specialists on food to Geneva, to discuss the problems of eating habits and food supplies of peoples throughout the world. One problem that particularly interested the specialists was a form of illness among the children in Africa and Latin America. The World Health Organization planned to study this disease to determine the relationship between the eating habits of the people and the disease. Two doctors were chosen to make the study. They flew to Africa south of the Sahara and during the next two months visited ten countries. They found that serious disease of poor eating, often mistaken for other diseases, existed in all parts of Africa. The diseases were similar and could, therefore, all be named kwashiorkor.

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