The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and China are
working together to reduce the damage done by vitamin and mineral
deficiency, particularly to children.
UNICEF and the Ministry of Health on Friday jointly launched
"Vitamin and Mineral Deficiency: A Damage Assessment Report for
China" in Beijing.
The report indicates iron deficiency may be impairing cognitive
development in more than 20 percent of Chinese children aged
between six and 24 months. About 12 percent of children have been
found to be deficient in Vitamin A.
"Vitamin A deficiency could lead to impaired immunity in
children, so there is an increased likelihood of infectious
diseases including pneumonia and diarrhoea," said Wang Longde, vice
minister of health.
"Recent studies supported by the World Health Organization (WHO)
have also highlighted other micronutrient deficiencies in China
including zinc deficiency, which was observed to be particularly
widespread in Qinghai, western China," said Henk Bekedam, WHO
representative in China.
There are 19 million babies born in China every year. Wang said
poor health among children could form a vicious cycle together with
poverty, hampering China's social and economic development.
Speaking at Friday's launch ceremony, UNICEF's Executive
Director Carol Bellamy praised the Chinese government and the
Ministry of Health for their extraordinary efforts to reach more
than 90 percent of China's 1.3 billion population with iodized
salt.
A potential 133 million children would have been at risk from
brain damage because of iodine deficiency if the government had not
taken the measure.
In 2002 alone, 14 million newborns benefited from this extra
iodine in their mothers' diets, safeguarding them from brain damage
and raising their IQ by 10 to 15 points.
If these achievements on iodine are sustained, China's economy
is expected to swell by US$25 billion over the next 10 years thanks
to a more productive work force.
But both Wang and Bellamy said the government's success with
iodine should be just the beginning of a campaign to increase
children's access to life-saving vitamins and minerals.
UNICEF, the Global Alliance for Improving Nutrition and the
Asian Development Bank have been working with the Chinese
government and private food companies to promote fortification of
staple foods like flour, soy sauce and salt with iodine, iron and
other vitamins and minerals.
Food fortification is an internationally recognized way of
bringing vitamins and minerals to the majority of a country's
population.
The report was produced by UNICEF and the Micronutrient
Initiative. The two organizations have prepared more than 80
"Damage Assessment Reports" for the most seriously affected
nations, assessing the extent of the impact.
Bellamy urged these countries and all global leaders to follow
China's example in making deficiency control a major public health
priority.
(China Daily September 4, 2004)