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Nearly 40 percent of Zambian women anaemic

    JOHANNESBURG
    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.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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