ADB approves food fortification project for the region

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a US $2 million grant for a food fortification project in Central Asia aimed at reducing iron deficiency anaemia and iodine deficiency disorders among children and women. While developing the capacity of the public and private sectors, the project serves to boost the supply of quality fortified food or food with vitamins and mineral supplements. "There is a very high level of iodine deficiency, iron deficiency anaemia and folic acid deficiency in the former Soviet Union and particularly in the Central Asian states, compared to other developing countries," Rie Hiraoka, senior social sectors specialist with the ADB, told IRIN on Tuesday from Manila, noting that in some oblasts of Kyrgyzstan between 70 and 90 percent of pregnant women are anemic. According to Hiraoka, these deficiencies had a negative impact on the ex-Soviet republics on both the education and productivity of large segments of the population, contributing to high levels of sustained poverty and directly affecting children's achievements at school. "Children born with iodine deficiency could suffer mental retardation," the ADB official said, explaining that children who were born in goitre (abnormal enlargement of the thyroid gland in the throat which is a symptom of this deficiency) epidemic areas could have IQ (intelligence quotient) points up to 10 to 13 lower than the average. "It is a huge loss," she stressed. She noted that the need for the food fortification project was very high in the region and explained that after the collapse of the former Soviet Union the distribution system for iodised salt completely collapsed. "We already knew the problem, but we were really surprised when we found out these high figures," Hiraoka asserted. A demographic health survey (DHS) conducted by ADB reveals that Tajikistan has the higher percentage of iodine deficiency among children (88.8 percent). The other three Central Asian states rank at over 40 percent. The anaemia prevalence among children is also notably high in these countries, with Uzbekistan having the highest number of cases with 60.8 percent. "Iron deficiency [anaemia] causes a higher infant mortality rate, maternal death and could also cause cognitive loss," Hiraoka said, explaining that pregnant women suffering from iron deficiency were more sensitive to any loss of iron during pregnancy. Hiraoka explained that folic acid deficiency, one of the most common of all vitamin deficiencies, was the most dominant in the region and "this could cause neurotube defects [in infants]". The project, financed by the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction, a Japanese governmental body, will develop and strengthen the implementation of a food fortification legislation and several programmes and will be implemented by the health ministries of each country, including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, as well as Mongolia. Under the framework of the grant, the ministry of health of each country will execute the food fortification project with governments contributing an additional budget of $546,000. The participating salt industries and flour mills will contribute some $2 million. According to Hiraoka, the project was a good example of public-private partnership for solving major public health problems in the region and stressed that the Copenhagen consensus, held in April 2004, listed food fortification as the second best investment after HIV/AIDS interventions.