“…It tends to be thought of in historic terms, without the recognition in many quarters that it continues to be a source of disability in the developing world. In recent years, rickets has been reported in some 21 countries (Bishop, 2001), including Tibet (Harris et al, 2001), Kuwait (Majid Molla et al, 2000), Ethiopia (Muhe et al, 1997), Yemen, (Banajeh et al, 1997), Mongolia (Fraser & Tserendolgor, 2001), the United Kingdom (Mughal et al, 1999), the United States (Eugster et al, 1996;Pugliese et al, 1998;Kreiter et al, 2000;Shah et al, 2000), South Africa (Pettifor et al, 1978), Nigeria (Okonofua et al, 1991;Oginni et al, 1996;Thacher et al, 1997Thacher et al, , 1999Thacher et al, , 2000a, and Bangladesh (Snedecor & Cochran, 1967;Anonymous, 1998;Fischer et al, 1999;Staab et al, 1999;Karim et al, 2001). While some of these reports describe sporadic occurrences of the disease in association with lifestyle and the lack of solar exposure sufficient to support adequate vitamin D biosynthesis, studies in South Africa (Pettifor et al, 1978) and Nigeria (Okonofua et al, 1991;Oginni et al, 1996;Thacher et al, 1997Thacher et al, , 1999Thacher et al, , 2000a have shown the disease to be caused by primary dietary deficiencies of calcium (Ca).…”