The World Health Organization (WHO) has released its first-ever comprehensive framework for reducing anaemia, a serious public health problem affecting millions of women and young children worldwide.
The organization is calling on countries to accelerate action to halve anaemia prevalence in women of reproductive age by 2025, as progress on reducing anaemia has been slow and the world is not on track to reach the global target.
Anaemia affects a significant portion of the global population, with 571 million women and 269 million young children worldwide suffering from the condition.
In 2019, anaemia affected 40% of children between 6 months and 5 years of age, 37% of pregnant women, and 30% of women between 15-49 years of age.
It is most prevalent in low- and middle-income countries, and 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.
According to Francesco Branca, the Director of WHO’s Department of Nutrition and Food Safety, most efforts to address anaemia have focused on the prevention and treatment of iron deficiency, but anaemia is a complex condition with multiple causes, including other nutritional deficiencies, infections, inflammation, gynaecological and obstetric conditions, and inherited red blood cell disorders.
Therefore, a comprehensive approach is required to effectively prevent and treat anaemia.
The new framework outlines ways to address the direct causes, risk factors, and broader social inequities that drive anaemia.
It emphasizes the need for collaboration across multiple sectors and actors, and lays out key action areas to improve the coverage and uptake of interventions.
While health remains the primary sector for delivering interventions, the framework proposes actions that other stakeholders, including governments, civil society, academia, researchers, funding agencies, international organizations, and media, can take to reduce anaemia and promote overall health.
The framework was launched during the International Maternal Newborn Health Conference.
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