Iodine Smart: Wise investment in children to reach their full potential
As we arrive at the school in Dunice, a small village one and a half hour’s drive from Pogradec in eastern Albania, we are met by Fatos, the school director. Fatos leads us inside the school building, which is in near ruins. There are few windows left, half of the walls have been knocked down and there is mud inside and outside – all the children wear boots inside the school. There is a total of 96 children studying at the school. As we enter one of the classrooms, we can see the students crouched over their desks in the cold. This is the room where the grade 8 children study and we are immediately struck with how much younger these fourteen year olds look as they are very thin, short and not well developed. In addition, we can see that 10 children obviously have goiters. This is not an unusual phenomenon in this area where 15 of the 40 families that still live in the village have members suffering from goiters (swelling of the thyroid gland), many of them children. In fact, 55.6 per cent of the children in Albania suffer from iodine deficiency (UNICEF statistics 2006). We ask Fatos about their academic progress and he replies that “the average mark does not go above 7”, indicating that the level of the class aptitude is well below average. Studies have shown that iodine deficiency can lead to a loss of up to 15 per cent of one's intellectual capacity, but can be prevented by just a teaspoonful of iodine consumed over an entire lifetime. Iodization of all salt for human consumption is the most cost-effective, safe and reliable method of fighting iodine deficiency. If all salt is iodized with sufficient amount of iodine and all families use only iodized salt, iodine deficiency is no more a threat to health and development of children. Unfortunately, not all families in Dunice are aware of iodine deficiency and how easily it can be treated and prevented. Even if the families knew about using iodized salt, poverty often stands in the way of their access to it. “People buy this other type of salt (non-iodized) because it is cheaper,” says Kujtim, a shopkeeper in Dunice. “Half a kilogram of iodized salt costs 20 Lek, while a half a kilogram of non-iodized salt costs 15 Lek.” In other, more isolated villages, obtaining fresh supplies is very difficult because of poor road infrastructure. Meanwhile, little attention is paid to the storage conditions of iodized salt, so even when iodized salt if found in the market, is not sure how much iodine it actually contains. UNICEF supports the Albanian government in leading focused interventions in advocacy, awareness raising and strengthening the quality control system for iodized salt. However, the iodine deficiency remains an area of concern requiring more coordinated and vigorous interventions to address the issue.
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