HYDERABAD: Child Specialist and Liaquat University of the Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS) Jamshoro, Faculty of Pediatrics Dean, Dr Salma Shaikh has said as many as 11 million children in the world have been affected due to iodine deficiency and brain damage of 43 million people has also been reported due to this reason.
Talking to APP here on Monday, Dr Salma Shaikh has said more should be invested for taking preventive measures to reduce the financial burden of the government as care was better than cure.
She said, at present 40 per cent women and 60 per cent children were affected only in Sindh province due to iodine deficiency because of the lack of awareness, wrong perceptions about iodine salt, non- implementation of laws, and inadequate performances by the concerned government departments.
The government had made legislation in 1994 for its compulsory usage but unfortunately implementation on this law had not been made accordingly .The medical community could play vital role in advocacy for usage of iodine salt at gross root level, she added.
She said that it was shocking to find out that more than 60 per cent population of the province was not using iodine salt because of unawareness and non-implementation of the law.
She further said that the Iodine deficiency could result in poor physical growth, deaf and dampness, short stature and goiter.
She said all the salt producing factories, producing salt without iodine must be discouraged and should be dealt with according to the law.
Dr Salma Shaikh urged the doctors and representatives of the different NGOs to spread awareness regarding the matter. “Through awareness we could avoid many problems in our social and medical field”, she concluded.
