Iodine deficiency remains a global concern for developing countries and some industrialised countries. Iodine deficiency is the most common cause of preventable mental retardation, posing a threat to the social and economic development of countries. Initiatives were developed and instituted to accelerate progress to achieve the goal of universal salt iodisation (USI). However, these efforts were not successful in eliminating iodine deficiency disorders (IDD) in some countries. Every year, 50 million children are born without the protection that iodine offers to the growing brain and body and about 18 million suffer some significant degree of mental impairment. The World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and non-governmental organisations assist to ensure that populations at risk have access to iodised salt. This paper will review the highlights of iodine deficiency and present the experiences in the various countries in Asia, i.e. assessments of the situation, action plans, and obstacles to implementation.
Deficiency Diseases ; prevention & control ; Humans ; Iodine ; deficiency

Anemia, Iron-Deficiency ; Humans

No abstract available.
Anemia, Iron-Deficiency*

No abstract available.
Factor XII Deficiency* ; Humans

No abstract available.
Anemia, Iron-Deficiency* ; Iron*

No abstract available.
Anemia, Iron-Deficiency* ; Iron*

The research was conducted on 260 mothers from 22 to 32 years old to study knowledge, attitude and practice in prevention vitamin A deficiency at 2 communes of My Loc district, Nam Dinh province. 83,8% of the mothers understood that using vitamin A rich foods could protect against vitamin A deficiency and 47,3% of them knew about role of high dose of vitamin A capsule approach, 82,7% mothers thought that vitamin A campaign is very necessary for children. There were only 12.5% mothers used vegetables and 33,6% used cooking oil/fat regularly for their children’s meals because the majority of them thought these foods were difficult to digest in their children. The number of mothers usually prepare supplementary foods for their children with 4 food groups only was 9,1%. The number of mothers did not give their children animal food; cooking oi/fat when they suffered from measles, diarrhea and ARI was 14,3%, 28,6% and 22.5%, respectively.
Vitamin A Deficiency ; Child ; Mothers

A survey had been carried out on 2.254 persons (including male and female) of 5 districts in the malaria hyper-endemic areas of Khanh Hoa, Gia Lai and Binh Phuoc provinces from 1999 to 2000. The results showd that, the G6PD deficiency prevalence varied in different ethnic groups: it was 17.1% in the Tay, and 11.1% in the Nung and Dao groups. These groups were migrating from North provinces. The other local ethnic groups (Ba Na, Gia Rai, Xtieng) have low rate of G6PD deficiency (from 1.7 to 3.4%). There was no relationship between the malaria and G6PD deficiency
Malaria ; ; Therapeutics ; disease ; deficiency

The results of a retrospective study of epidemiological surveys was conducted by National Iodine Deficiency Disorder Control Program and periodic surveys were conducted by the Centre of Preventive Health of An Giang in 1998, 2000 and 2003, showed that the coverage rate of households consumed salt with an iodine concentration of more than 20ppm was 29%, 52.9% and 76.5%, respectively. The median urinary iodine concentration was 1.8mlg/dl, 4.4mg/dl and 5.7mg/dl, respectively. The prevalence of goiter in children age 8-10 years was 20.5%, 12.8% and 6.1%, respectively. In 2003, there were still 71.5% of households situated in the iodine deficiency area in An Giang province. The main reasons make people have not used iodised salt are habit of using normal salt; iodised salt is not available and affordable. Although knowledge about the benefit of iodised salt for preventing endemic goiter is 89.4%, knowledge of using iodised salt for preventing creatinism is low (40%).
Iodine ; Iodine/deficiency ; Epidemiology

139 subjects of 2 ethnic groups of Kinh (Hanoi) and Muong (HoaBinh) were submitted to study from October to December 2003 in order to assess the sensitivity and the specificity of the rapid test of determination of G6PD. All subjects underwent both two methods (rapid test and quantifying method) in concomittance.Results showed the sensity of 91,2% and the specificity of 97,2% in both male and female genders. For detecting G6PD defiency in male, the rapid test gave higher sensitivity and specificity than in female 97,1 and 100% respectively in male and 85,3% and 94,1% in female subjects
Glucosephosphate Dehydrogenase ; deficiency ; diagnosis ;