English: This 1968 photograph showed salted dried codfish that was distributed to refugees of the Nigerian-Biafran war in the late 1960s. Such fish helped to supplement the protein deficient diets of the camp inhabitants who were suffering from protein malnutrition, which would eventually lead to kwashiorkor.
In 1967, the CDC was asked to assist the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in its disease control and death prevention efforts at numerous relief camps outside of the war zone. The CDC carried out rapid health and nutritional assessments, coordinated the overall health and nutritional response, and implemented surveillance systems to track rates of illness and death. A triage approach was taken when allotting food supplies to camp refugees, which was based on the initial determination of each refugee’s nutritional status. The most serious malnutrition cases were hospitalized in each camp to be rehabilitated.