One of the first mistakes of Western medicine in Africa was the iron supplementation to the Somali nomads in 1968. Blood analysis of these nomads had shown that according to European standards they were suffering from anemia.
Murray MJ, Murray AB, Murray MB, Murray CJ. The adverse effect of iron repletion on the course of certain infections. Br Med J. 1978 Oct 21;2(6145):1113-5.
But iron administration was associated with a significant increase of the disease it was supposed to suppress and even to reactivation of pre-existing...
