Tamil Nadu - Madurai

58% of pregnant women anaemic, says survey

MADURAI: A nationwide health survey has found that 58 per cent of pregnant women in Tamil Nadu are suffering from anaemia and a large section of adolescent girls are becoming anaemic owing to multiple factors.

The National Family Health Survey-3, undertaken by the Indian Institute of Population Science-Mumbai, has come out with findings on State-specific health indicators, said S. Elango, Director of Public Health and Preventive Medicine.

Talking to The Hindu here on Sunday, he said the Directorate of Public Health would devise adequate intervention based on the report and submit a proposal to the government.

“In our State, though we are performing well on other health indicators, anaemia still remains a concern. So we will come out with a plan to tackle anaemia at adolescent age itself.”

Dr. Elango said the plan would focus on girls aged 12, because from here, “they start losing blood owing to menstruation.” Adequate importance would be given to nutritious diet and iron folic tablets to compensate blood loss. “We will also seek the support of other agencies involved in health programmes. Before that, we will draft a scheme that provides for either therapeutic or prophylactic intervention, depending on the level of anaemia,” he said.

The medical staff of Primary Health Centres would be asked to classify the anaemia into three categories—mild, moderate and severe—after screening girls and women.

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