September 20, 2007	Thursday	Ramazan 07, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Sept 19: Iodine Deficiency Disorders (IDDs) continue to be a serious health concern in Pakistan, says the World Food Programme (WFP).

WFP’s Country Director Michael Jones said the United Nations agency and its partners had chipped in marvellously in a bid to stem the problem that was particularly grave in the Northern Areas.

Under a two-year programme launched in July 2006, WFP along with Micronutrient Initiative, Unicef, the Ministry of Health and others are aiming to prevent, control and eventually eliminate the menace.

Hoping that the programme would yield positive results, Mr Jones said just a year since its launch, the project had seen dramatic results with the production of iodised salt increasing from a mere 17 per cent to as much as 67 per cent.

But it might still be only a small step forward considering that half the country’s population is estimated to be at risk with the situation being grim up north where iodine deficiency affects about 80 per cent of the people.

WFP has identified 29 highly endemic districts in NWFP, Azad Kashmir, Fana and Fata as their target to cut down the prevalence of IDDs among the 24 million people in those areas.

Ministry of Health’s Deputy Director General Health (Nutrition) Dr Zahid Larik pointed out that whatever success had been achieved so far was the result of concentrated efforts.

This involved provision of required quantity of Potassium Iodate in the project area, iodisation equipment and trainings and capacity-building of the salt processors at the district level.

As a result of the programme’s success, the Punjab health department has now requested WFP and its partners to start similar activities in 15 of its districts.

The project officials have organised the salt processors into district level associations and multi-sector IDD committees for implementation and monitoring of WFP’s Universal Salt Iodisation (USI) activities in each district.

The challenge for those running the project now is to maintain and increase the level of iodisation as well as to develop mechanisms for sustainability, including capacity- building of salt processors to be able to procure the vital potassium iodate directly through their own channels.

Besides, the health department’s ability to monitor and regulate production, sale and distribution of Iodised salt would also need to be a part of those mechanisms.