Problems of child health in a Peruvian shanty town.

The basic child-health problems in the shanty towns of Lima are protein-calorie malnutrition and infectious disease. The background of social, economic and cultural conditionsa are related to these main health problems. The basic problems are poverty, lack of sewage disposal and running water, and the maldistribution of public expenditure between city and countryside on one hand and curative and preventive medicine on the other. Despite official statistics, which show a steadily decreasing infant mortality rate in Peru, and all other Latin American countries, it seems that the Infant Mortality Rate is almost twice the official states rate. Health education, particularly in nutritional matters, is not adapted to indigenous foods and customs, but attempts to promote westernized conceptrs. Medical care in Peru is by large directed to the needs of the middle class, and the middle class by and large dictates the type of medical care available.