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)