Campaign to increase iodine intake launched

A mass social mobilisation campaign to increase the number of households consuming adequate iodised salt has been launched in Accra.

Under the auspices of the government and the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), the campaign is aimed at getting more people to consume iodised salt in the rural and urban areas.

Speaking at the launch in Accra, a deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Baba Jamal, said insufficient intake of iodised salt led to disorders, especially in children.

He said, “Nearly 20 years since the government established the salt iodisation law, only one third of households in Ghana consume adequate iodised salt”.

Iodised salt, the minister said, was essential for the development of the brain and appealed to the public to consume iodised salt.

The representative of UNICEF, Ms Susan Namondo Ngongi, said, “Over 80 per cent of Ghanaians have heard about iodised salt but less than one half of this number know its benefits and, therefore, hardly demand it”.

She added that UNICEF was committing $1 million over a five-year period to support the government of Ghana to improve household consumption of adequate iodised salt.

“UNICEF support will extend nationally through mass media campaigns with specific community mobilisation interventions and activations” Ms Ngoni noted.

The Director General, Ghana Health Service, Dr Ebenezer Appiah-Denkyira, said the consumption of iodised salt had been of immense benefit since its introduction in the early 90s.

According to him, an impact study conducted at Bongo and Jirapa indicated a 20 per cent reduction of goitre in those iodine deficient endemic districts in Ghana.

Daily Graphic/Ghana