Durban — The World Health Organisation (WHO) says 571 million and 269 million young children are affected by the anaemia. The organisation says anaemia is a serious global public health problem and says it has launched its first-ever comprehensive framework on reducing anaemia, and further calls on countries to accelerate action to halve its prevalence in women of reproductive age by 2025.
The director of WHO's Department of Nutrition and Food Safety Francesco Branca, said in 2019 anaemia affected 40% of children between 6 months and 5 years of age, 37% of pregnant women and 30% of women 15–49 years of age. He said it is most common in low- and middle-income countries.
“Anaemia increases the risk of infections and death, impairs cognitive performance, and causes extreme fatigue, poor pregnancy outcomes, loss of earnings, and poor growth and development. It is a strong indicator of overall health. Most work on addressing anaemia has been focused on the prevention and treatment of iron deficiency,” said Branca.
He said however, anaemia is a complex condition with multiple causes – including other nutritional deficiencies, infections, inflammation, gynaecological and obstetric conditions, and inherited red blood cell disorders. Branca said all must be addressed to effectively prevent and treat anaemia.
He said the new framework sets forth ways to address the direct causes, risk factors and broad social inequities that are fundamental drivers for anaemia. “The framework was launched during the International Maternal Newborn Health Conference,” he said.
Branca said this describes the necessarily comprehensive approach that brings together multiple sectors and actors, and lays out key action areas to improve the coverage and uptake of interventions.
“Acknowledging that health remains the predominant sector for delivering many of the recommended interventions, the framework also proposes actions that other societal stakeholders can take, these include governments,” explained Branca.
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