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| Child with goiter due IDD |
About 77% of households in the country do not consume
iodized salt hence are at risks of having Iodine Deficiency Disorders (IDDs) like
goiter and mental retardation. Women in this
household are at risk of miscarriages and still birth.
Mathew Baldeh of UNICEF, on Monday during a
two-seminar for media practitioners on IDDs, said only 23% of households in The
Gambia consume iodized salt. “This is
serious,” he remarked, noting it has serious health and social consequences
which are detrimental to the country’s development particularly to the
attainment of some of the MDGs.
IDD is a real threat to child survival and development and children in The
Gambia are amongst the most threatened. The risk of physical deformity,
blindness, infections such as severe anemia and measles are greater when
children do not have enough iodine in their bodies. IDDs can be prevented by consuming iodised
salt.
Dr John Egbuta, regional director for West and
Central Africa at the International Council for the Control of Iodine
Deficiency Disorders (ICCIDD), said The Gambia is at risk of iodine deficiency
disorders and to remedy the situation “we need to make sure any salt consume in
the country to be iodized.”
He said The Gambia’s key focused areas for salt iodization
programme should be to improved quality of iodised salt, to have a quality
control system, to improved consumer preference and acceptance of iodine salt,
and to increase public awareness of important of iodized salt.
Malang Fofana, programme manager of the Gambia
National Nutrition Agency, said iodine is a micronutrient require by the body
in small amount but extremely important for the development of the brain
particularly in children and in pregnant women.
