Environmental enteropathy is a disorder of chronic intestinal inflammation. EE is most common amongst children living in low-resource settings. Acute symptoms are typically minimal or absent. EE can lead to malnutrition, anemia, growth stunting, impaired brain development, and impaired response to oral vaccinations. The cause of EE is multifactorial. Overall, exposure to contaminated food and water leads to a generalized state of intestinal inflammation. The inflammatory response results in multiple pathological changes to the gastrointestinal tract: Smaller villi, larger crypts, increased permeability, and inflammatory cell build-up within the intestines. These changes result in poor absorption of food, vitamins and minerals. Standardized, clinically practical diagnostic criteria do not exist. The most accurate diagnostic test is intestinal biopsy. However, this test is invasive and unnecessary for most patients. Prevention is the strongest and most reliable option for preventing EE and its effects. Therefore, prevention and treatment of EE are often discussed together.
Signs and symptoms
Environmental enteropathy is believed to result in chronic malnutrition and subsequent growth stunting as well as other child development deficits.
Short-term
EE is rarely symptomatic and is considered a subclinical condition. However, adults may have mild symptoms or malabsorption such as altered stool consistency, increased stool frequency and weight loss.
Long-term
Malnutrition
* EE causes malnutrition by way of both malabsorption and nutritional deficiencies.
* Many oral vaccines, both live and non-living, have proven to be less immunogenic or less protective when administered to infants, children or adults living in low socioeconomic conditions in developing countries than they are when used in industrialized countries. Widespread EE is hypothesized to be a contributing cause for this observation.
Causes
The development of EE is multifactorial, but predominantly associated with chronic exposure to contaminated food and water. This is especially true in environments where widespread open defecation and lack of sanitation are common.
Mechanism
Long-term exposure to environmental pathogens leads to a generalized state of intestinal inflammation. Chronic inflammation leads to both functional and structural changes which alter gut permeability and ability of the intestine to absorb nutrients. Specifically, structural changes within the intestine include smaller villi, larger crypts, increased permeability, and inflammatory cell build-up within the intestines. These changes result in poor absorption of food, vitamins and minerals – or "modest malabsorption".
Diagnosis
The current gold standard diagnostic test for EE is intestinal biopsy and histological analysis. Histological changes observed include:
Villous blunting
Crypt hypertrophy
Villous fusion
Mucosal inflammation
However, this procedure is considered too invasive, complex and expensive to be implemented as standard of care. As a result, there are various research efforts underway to identify biomarkers associated with EE, which could serve as less invasive, yet representative, tools to screen for and identify EE from stool samples. In an effort to identify simple, accurate diagnostic tests for EE, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has established an EE biomarkers consortium as part of their Global Grand Challenges initiative. So far, various biomarkers have been selected and studied based on the current understanding of EE pathophysiology:
It is postulated that the limited of understanding of EE is partially due to the paucity of reliable biomarkers, making it difficult for researchers to track the epidemiology of the condition and assess the efficacy of interventions.
Classification
In the 1960s, researchers reported a syndrome of non-specific histopathological and functional changes to the small intestine in individuals living in unsanitary conditions. This syndrome was observed predominantly in tropical regions across Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. The geographic distribution of the syndrome lead to the original term of "tropical enteropathy". Following initial reports, further investigation revealed that these symptoms were not specific to tropical climates. For example, individuals in more wealthy tropical countries, such as Qatar and Singapore, did not exhibit these symptoms. Similarly, subsequent studies have shown this condition to be common across the developing world, closely associated with impoverished conditions but independent of climate or geography. As a result, the term "environmental enteropathy" was introduced to specify that this condition is not only found in tropical areas and is believed to be caused by environmental factors.
Prevention
Prevention focuses on improving access to water, sanitation and hygiene. Another important factor might be contaminated soil in child play spaces, often caused by the presence of livestock such as chicken in the household. Creating a clean play space might therefore be an effective preventive measure for EE in toddlers.
Treatment
Treatment focuses on addressing the central components of intestinal inflammation, bacterial overgrowth and nutritional supplementation.
Research initiatives
There are multiple large-field, multi-country research initiatives focusing on strategies to prevent and treat EE.
