خواتین اور بچوں میں آئرن کی کمی کا مسئلہ بڑھ رہا ہے۔۔۔

The News - Micronutrient Initiative, World Bank, Unicef and other leading international agencies have launched a report claiming that 51 per cent preschool aged children, 39 per cent pregnant women and 28 per cent non-pregnant women in Pakistan are suffering from iron deficiency called anaemia.

The Ministry of Health, the Micronutrient Initiative, the WB, Unicef and leading development agencies in the country have jointly launched a report called “Investing in the future: A united call to action on vitamin and mineral deficiencies, at an International Conference on “Recent Advances in Human Nutrition with Special Reference to Vulnerable Groups”, held at the National Institute of Food Sciences and Technology in Faisalabad. The report further has advocated that vitamin A supplementation reduces mortality in children between six months and five years of age by an average of 23 per cent. In Pakistan 12.5 per cent children are vitamin A deficient and 7.8 per cent pregnant mothers suffering night blindness. However, more than 95 per cent children aged 6-5 months are reached with vitamin A capsules twice a year through polio campaigns.>>
The report claimed deficiency of micronutrient malnutrition as one of the major causes of deaths among children and women in Pakistan. Therefore it has recommended that the government should continue to support Universal Salt Iodization Program to ensure more than 70 per cent adequately iodized salt production and to push for national level legislation and its enforcement.

In the same way support should continue for twice yearly vitamin A supplementation for children between six months and five years with special emphasis to hard to reach children. Efforts should be made for national scale up of zinc supplementation in diarrhea management and ensuring zinc supply. The report has also recommended scaling up availability of multiple micronutrient supplements, such as Multiple Micronutrient Powders for under two children and iron and folic acid supplements for all women of child bearing age, with a special focus on pregnant women.

The report says micronutrient interventions can easily be integrated into ongoing health services, or into existing methods for food production. With the low cost of interventions and their high returns in improved capacity, the benefit to cost ratio of micronutrient programming is unmatched by any other large-scale health or economic intervention.

In communities where iodine intake is sufficient, average IQ is shown to be on average 13 points higher than in iodine deficient communities. However between 1993 and 2007, the number of countries in which iodine-deficiency disorders were a public health concern was reduced by more than half, from 110 to 47. In Pakistan 63.6 per cent school aged children are iodine deficient.

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