Nearly 40 percent of Zambian women anaemic

Nearly 40 percent of Zambian women suffer from anaemia, according to a recent report by the Lusaka Teaching Hospital. It said the illness was rampant among Zambian women because of their heavy reliance on staples like maize, which inhibited the absorption of iron. The report found that an estimated 42 percent of pregnant women were anaemic, resulting in low birth weights and an increase in pre-natal and neo-natal mortality rates. According to the country's demographic health survey of 1996, the maternal mortality rate was 649 for every 100,000 births, with an estimated 10 percent of all newly born babies registering a low birth weight.