African health ministers highlight importance of ending IDD

Some 324 million people in Africa are estimated to be iodine deficient, with children among the most seriously affected. Among the effects of deficiency are; a loss of up to 13 IQ points, a significant burden for both children and their countries, as efforts are made to educate young generations for the rigours of 21st century life. Health Ministers gathering for their 46th annual meeting reviewed the progress already made and the extra efforts needed to end iodine deficiency disorders (IDD).

The solution lies in an expansive partnership with salt producers. The goal is full iodization of salt in Eastern and Southern Africa, experts at the meeting told Africa Science News Service. Universal iodization of salt is a long-standing and highly effective measure already widely in place around the world, including in a number of African countries. For every dollar invested in preventing iodine deficiency, productivity increases by US$28, according to the World Bank, a monetary return indicative of the human benefits, including the potential significant gains in learning ability. The key is to get iodized salt into people's diets. This depends on dynamic cooperation between salt producers, salt marketers and governments.

Salt iodized salt is the best route for people to get the tiny amounts of iodine they need daily (a trace amount the size of a pinhead) to protect their health and the intellectual and physical development of their children. Since the 1980s, countries across the region have worked towards universal salt iodization, with varying degrees of success. In Kenya and Uganda, for example, more than 90 percent of households are already using iodized salt. However, UNICEF and International Council for the Control of Iodine Deficiency Disorders (ICCIDD) say a number of countries still have strides to make.

In Malawi only 55 percent of households consume iodized salt. The usage rates fall to 35 percent in Angola, and just 20 percent in Ethiopia which has the largest population in the region, and the largest number of children at risk. Salt iodization is necessary because iodine, a naturally occurring essential element, has been leached or washed from the soil and so from the food chain in many countries in Africa. Children born to mothers who are iodine-deficient may suffer from slight to pronounced physical and/or mental impairment. In extreme cases they may have the neurological condition of cretinism. Mothers who are iodine deficient also run a higher risk of miscarriages, still births and perinatal mortality.

The Ministers meeting in Seychelles could have an enormous success story on their hands, if by the end of their term of office; a final push virtually eliminates this deficiency through sustained universal salt iodisation.