‘Prevalence of anaemia rising among women’

According to survey, anaemia among non-pregnant women has gone up from 28.1% to 50.4% in 10 years

KARACHI: As prevalence of anaemia is rising among women, Dr Iqbal Chandio, the provincial programme director of national maternal, neonatal and child health programme, Sindh, urged that White Ribbon Alliance and its partners need to work on the grass-roots level to improve the indicators of maternal anaemia as the condition is affecting the poor.

He said this while handing over a petition on 'ending maternal anaemia' by the people of Sindh at a local hotel on Tuesday. The drive was conducted in more than 16 districts across Sindh in the past three months with the objective of creating awareness about the issue and providing a platform to demand effective steps to address the longstanding issue of maternal anaemia.

"The National Nutrition Survey (NNS) 2011 was an eye-opener for Pakistan and revealed inadequate progress in nutritional status of mothers and children,” said Dr Asman Badar, the national campaign manager of the White Ribbon Alliance. “The NNS 2011 states that prevalence of maternal anaemia for non-pregnant women has gone up from 28.1 per cent [2001] to 50.4 per cent [2001] and for pregnant women it increased from 28.3 per cent [2001] to 48.9 per cent [2011]. The NNS 2011 further reported that in Sindh, 62 per cent of non-pregnant mothers and 59 per cent of pregnant mothers are anaemic. Maternal anaemia leads to poor pregnancy outcomes for the mother and newborn."



Sharing the objectives of the campaign, she maintained that the government must increase the availability of iron and folic acid supplements by 20 per cent in Sindh. She added that the government must increase the percentage of women of child-bearing age who receive effective counselling about the importance of taking iron and folic acid supplements. Lastly, she said, the government must improve awareness about anaemia among adolescent girls in Sindh by 2018.

Mubashir Zaidi, the moderator of the event, added that we need to tackle the issue on emergency grounds and this would only happen if all the segments of society would realise the importance of health-related issues. "It's an issue of every household," he added. He was of the view that if we fail to make women healthy, then we would fail to make our society healthy.

Dr Fauzia Khan, the head of curriculum wing, school education department of Sindh, maintained that they would incorporate small messages in the curriculum regarding the health issues that need to be addressed urgently.



The provincial coordinator of Lady Health Workers Programme, Dr Gul Shaikh, assured the provision of help to the White Ribbon Alliance and its partners to address the issue of maternal anaemia in the province.