Pregnant women and newborn child: experts urge usage of iodine to prevent disease

Health experts at workshop urged the government to take pragmatic steps for ensuring maximum usage of iodine to control the growing prevalent diseases among expecting women and to improve growth their newborn child during pregnancy, besides overcome with the malnutrition issues.
The workshop was organized by Micro-nutrient initiative, a non governmental organisation (NGO), in collaboration with Health Department and WHO for working journalists, in which a number of media persons participated. The nutrition expert also said that lack of iodine causes mental stress, tiredness among pregnant women, and growth of a newborn baby during pregnancy.
As compared to neighbouring Asian countries India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh, Pakistan lagging behind in the usage of iodine, said Dr Tausif Akhtar Janjua, a health nutrition expert while speaking at an awareness workshop on malnutrition and iodine deficiency, here at a local hotel on Tuesday.
The Micronutrient Initiative country Director Dr Tausif Janjua also said that nutrition problem among adolescent girls and children of less then five years of age, in Pakistan, were more worsen from African countries. Referring to a health survey report, he said, deficiency of iodine, Vitamin-A, Zinc, Iron, and Folic Acid reported among pregnant women and children.
Earlier, referring to a National Nutrition Survey 2011, Dr Janjua said that about 15 percent new-borns were having low weight, 44 percent low height proportionate to age, whereas 63 percent children and 51 percent pregnant women were lacks of blood. Similarly, 36 percent children and 36 percent women lacks of iodine, while 54 percent children lack Vitamin-A and 42 lacks Vitamin D. He also revealed that this ratio was increased in 2011 compare to the 2001-02 survey, for many reasons, as in about half of the total women's and half of the total children's population were having acute deficiency.