Nutritional rickets in infants immigrating to Israel from Ethiopia.

Rickets is a metabolic bone disease characterized by failure of normal mineralization of the cartilage of growing bones, causing softening and weakening of the bones, leading to deformation and fractures. Rickets occurs primarily when themetabolites of vitamin D are deficient; however, recent reports from Nigeria suggest that calcium deficiency may be the major factor causing rickets in that country. Clinical manifestations of rickets include craniotabes, rosaries, thickening of the wrists, bowing of legs, and short stature. Extraskeletal manifestations include hypotony, tetany, convulsions and respiratory infections [1,2]. Nutritional rickets that was thought to have disappeared in developed countries has returned in recent years [3]. In the past 3 years, in a clinic in Mevasseret, a suburb of Jerusalem, we have treated a few infants with nutritional rickets, all new immigrants from Ethiopia. We present two of them. Patient Descriptions