SOUTHERN AFRICA: Micronutrient deficiencies impact on GDP

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

JOHANNESBURG, 8 Oct 2004 (IRIN) - Up to two percent of Southern African countries' Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is lost because of vitamin and mineral deficiencies, according to a report released this week.

Vitamin and mineral deficiencies retard intellectual development, compromise immune systems, cause birth defects and affect the working capacity of adults, Venkatesh Mannar, one of the co-authors of the report and president of the NGO, Micronutrient Initiative, told IRIN.

Other contributors to the report were the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organisation, the New Economic Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), the Development Bank of Southern Africa and the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition.

Among the worst affected Southern African countries are Angola, Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia, who are losing more than one percent of their GDP.

According to the report, vitamin and mineral deficiencies are costing sub-Saharan economies more than US $2.3 billion in lost productivity.

About 20 to 40 percent of women in Southern Africa are living with iron deficiencies, which causes anaemia - more than a 1,000 mothers in Mozambique die from severe anaemia every year. "Even in South Africa, which has the best standard of living in the region, about 40 percent of children aged below two suffer from iron deficiency," Mannar said. Almost 60 percent of Angolan women aged between 15 and 49 suffer from iron deficiency anaemia.

Vitamin A deficiency affects the immune system. "The vitamin is particularly critical where the HIV/AIDS prevalence is high - in fact, to fight any other illness. One in five children in Africa do not live to see their fifth birthday in Africa," Mannar commented.

More than half of the children aged below six in Zambia, Angola, Lesotho, Malawi and Namibia are living with vitamin A deficiency.

A lack of iodine impairs the intellectual development of a child and can cause severe to mild retardation. About 235,000 children in Angola are born mentally impaired every year, followed by South Africa (160,000) and Malawi (115,000).

"The solution to all these problems is quite simple - add essential vitamins and minerals to foods that are regularly consumed, such as wheat flour, maize meal, salt, sugar, cooking oil and margarine - and it does not cost much," Mannar pointed out.

He said all the concerned agencies were attempting to make it mandatory, through NEPAD and the Southern African Development Community, to fortify basic foods such as wheat flour, maize meal and salt. South Africa has begun to fortify wheat flour with iron and folic acid.

Zimbabwe has attained high levels of iodised salt coverage, thus protecting 70 percent of new-borns against mental impairment caused by iodine deficiency.

Zambia, Angola, Mozambique, Madagascar, Botswana, Malawi and Angola have begun reaching 70 percent or more of their young children, with one vitamin A capsule every year saving the lives of several thousands, noted the report.

The UN has called for the sustained elimination of iodine deficiency by 2005, vitamin deficiency by 2010, and a reduction of at least 30 percent in the global prevalence of iron deficiency anaemia by 2010.

[ENDS]