Health department new project to check iodine intake in students is superb
Posted on: 10/Aug/2018 10:28:57 AM
To avoid IDD or Iodine Deficiency Disorders, intake of Iodine is a must. The IDD has been a major public health issue in the state of TN and daily consumption of iodine was a devised strategy. It is clear that large population of students do not consume iodine everyday and as a result these children have iodine deficiency in them.
Under the National Iodine Deficiency Disorder Control Programme or NIDDCP, the directorate of public health has started a new project to test if the students consumed iodized salt regularly. This new project has been started in places like Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram as a pilot project. If the intake of iodine through salt weakens then the prevalence of IDD would increase.
As per the needs for health and nutrition, a strategy to meet the demands of iodized salt is necessary. It is now brought out that the officials are collecting the urine samples of the government school students to test if these students are consuming iodized salt and this is under the National Iodine Deficiency Disorder Control Programme. For the presence of iodine content, the salt samples would also be checked every month from the retail shops. This would be carried out along with the urine samples study to check the iodine intake by the students. The iodine deficiency disorder lab would be playing its role by conducting checks for the iodine deficiency disorders and this would be done as a part of the study.
Dr. K. Kolandaisamy, public health director, spoke about how the study would soon be extended to other districts also.
