Beefed up flour to tackle anaemia

An increasing number of anaemia cases among children and women countrywide is being tackled by the Iraqi government and the United Nations by supplying flour fortified with iron and folic acid as part of monthly food rations.

“Rates of anaemia have risen considerably recently in Iraqi society but especially among children. This project aims to reverse this increasing problem,” said Osama Abdul-Aziz, director of the Nutrition Research Institute.

According to Abdul-Aziz, 60 percent of students in primary schools and 79 percent of women at childbearing age in Basra governorate have anaemia.

Meanwhile, 50 percent of pregnant women in the capital, Baghdad, have the disorder.

Anaemia, meaning ‘without blood’ in Greek, is the most common disorder of the blood, causing a deficiency of red blood cells. There are several kinds of anaemia, produced by a variety of underlying causes. One cause is poor diet – more specifically a lack of iron, folic acid and other vitamins.

“The problem is serious and should be the main issue tackled to improve health conditions in the country,” said Abdul-Azize.

“Because flour is one of the main food supplies used by Iraqis, the fortification elements are going to be added to it.”

Iraqis consume an average of up to 223g of flour per person per day and it is the main item in the monthly food ration programme offered to 28 million people countrywide.

The nationwide project of flour fortification is supported by the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef), the World Health Organisation (WHO), the World Food Programme (WFP), the Canada-based Micronutrients Initiative (MI) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

"This initiative is an important step to improve the health of millions of children in Iraq because the lack in iron, folic acid and vitamins increases anaemia rates and the risk of abortion and congenital birth defects becomes more common," said Maruan Ahmed, press office official at the Ministry of Health.

“There has been an increase of about 50 percent of cases of anaemia compared to before the US-led invasion in 2003,” Ahmed added, noting that the increase in anaemia cases in children at primary school has also affected their learning development.

“Anaemia makes a person weaker and delays growth development, which in the future can also affect the mental health [of a person].

We hope that with the new programme we can have the success that other Middle Eastern countries have,” Ahmed said.

Iraq’s Ministry of Trade is responsible for the distribution of food rations. Ibraheem Khudar, the ministry’s spokesperson, explained that equipment and materials have been distributed to 175 government flour mills in all governorates countrywide, after training their technical staff to use the new machinery.

“Until next February, with the main support from Unicef, all mills in the country will be adding the fortification supplies to all flour distributed in the country and we are very optimistic that we can reduce anaemia cases by at least 40 percent by the end of this year,” Khudar said.

By that time, the Ministry of Health says 100 percent of the flour distributed will be fortified with iron, folic acid and other vitamins.

AS/SZ/ED