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In many countries in South and East Asia, most diets are defective in quality, even when there is not a severe shortage of food. They do. not provide an adequate quantity of essential nutrients. One of the most severe deficiencies is in good quality protein. The solution to this problem is to produce and provide the right kinds of foods and to establish national food production policies which should make it possible to plan a better balanced diet based on sound nutritional principles and modern knowledge of nutritional requirements. Some degree of undernutrition, over-nutrition, or malnutrition occurs in most European countries. The consumption of an unbalanced diet may be due to low incomes or to lack of nutritional knowledge and ignorance of the special needs of large groups of people such as pregnant and lactating women and infants. In families where money available for food purchasing is limited, a suitable diet can be selected if the housewife has more knowledge of good feeding practices. Many investigations have shown that there is a relation between poor diets during pregnancy and prematurity and susceptibility of the infant to infection and other hazards. An adequate diet in developed countries for the pregnant and lactating woman is given. In developing countries where these foods are not available, mixtures of native cereal, legumes, and other plant proteins should be used and if available fish , eggs, poultry, sheep, goats, or other meats. Native vegetables, fruits, rice, cassava, or bread should be used to complete the diet. Breast feeding should be encouraged in all areas of the world. The length of the breast feeding period should be for a longer period in developing countries. Special mixtures of high quality protein foods suitable for the infant at time of weaning should be made available. Proper sanitation for clean food is needed. Finally, the infant must have love and personal attention of his mother for his mental and physical well being.

Potassium i.s one of the major constituents of the human body but its role in metabolism is not clearly defined. One reason for this is the predominant intracellular distribution of the ion and the attendant difficulties in the detection of deficiency states. Serum potassium levels are of little value as over 95% of the potassium in the body is intracellular. Balance studies and the analysis of biopsy material have been used. However, they are so time consuming that they are only of use in establishing the diagnosis retrospectively and give very little indication of the severity of the deficit. Exchangeable potassium measurements do give an indication of the severity of the deficit. However, they involve the administration of an isotope which is not always available because of its short half-life. The development of the whole body counter has overcome most of these problems.

At present, both the aetiology of hyaline membrane disease and a means of preventing it remain unknown. Recent studies indicate that a significant number of infants die of respiratory failure but there is no general agreement concerning the changes of pulmonary function which lead to this stage. Two approaches have been used in the treatment of respiratory decompensation. First it has been proposed that blood gas and acid base abnormalities which result from respiratory failure can be prevented by oxygen and intravenous alkali and secondly an attempt has been made to correct abnormal lung function itself by means of artificial ventilation. These methods are directed at different aspects of the problem and their efficacy is as yet not established. The application of artificial ventilation in particular must depend on the nature of any ventilation, diffusion or perfusion defect.

Respiratory failure accounts for a large, if not the largest, percentage of deaths during the first 48 hours of life. During the last ten years a great deal of research has been devoted to this early respiratory failure. The syndrome has been known by different names at different times; hyaline membrane disease (because pulmonary hyaline membrane is a frequent autopsy finding), congestive pulmonary failure, vernix membrane disease, pulmonary syndrome, and more recently the respiratory distress syndrome. A vast literature on the subject has accumulated. Many new and interesting facts have come to light and although many new theories have been put forth to explain the syndrome, the cause is still unknown.