Iodized salt’s miracle in the “village of idiots”

Ho, Oct. 5, GNA – Before 1978 Jixian Village in China was called a “village of idiots” because of iodine deficiency disorders.

Eighty per cent of its 1243 inhabitants had goitre, 11 per cent suffered from cretism, school failure rate stood at 11 per cent whilst the village school was ranked last.

Earnings from farm production stood at 19,000.00 Yuan with a per capita income of 43.00 Yuan.

This was made known in a paper delivered by Professor E. Asibey-Berko, of the Department of Nutrition and Food Science, University of Ghana, Legon at a Media Sensitisation Seminar on Universal Salt Iodisation in Ho.

After 1986 however there was a dramatic reversal of the situation of the Jixian “village of idiots” with the consumption of iodated salt.

Goitre prevalence dropped from the pre-1978 figure of 80 per cent to 4.5 per cent in 1986, cretism from 11 per cent to nil, whilst the village school was ranked third from 14.

The school’s failure rate went down to two per cent from 50 per cent.

The village’s earnings from farm production went up from 19,000.00 Yuan to 180,000.00 Yuan with its per capita income climbing to 550.00 Yuan from 43.00 Yuan.

In Ghana, Professor Asibey indicated that a 2007 assessment of Iodine Deficiency Disorders in Jirapa in the Upper West Region showed that goitre prevalence rate reduced from 56.6 per cent to 10.6 per cent while Bongo in the Upper East Region recorded a reduction of 18.2 per cent from 56.6 per cent due to the consumption of iodised salt.

He described the reduction as “most encouraging”.