HEALTH-ARGENTINA: Anemia Rate Soars in Major Beef Exporter

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Jan 30 2003 (IPS) - Half of all children under two in Argentina are suffering from anemia, despite the fact that this Southern Cone country is the world’s fourth-biggest exporter of beef, one of the best dietary sources of iron.

The high proportion of children with iron deficiency anemia, which climbs to 70 percent among the poor, has caused alarm in this once-rich nation, Latin America’s third-largest economy, which is still attempting to recover from its late 2001 all-out economic and political collapse.

Experts point out that in countries of the industrialised North, or developing countries like Chile that make iron-fortified flour available to the population, less than 10 percent of young children typically suffer from iron deficiency anemia.

Health experts and activists interviewed by IPS pointed out that Chile and other countries with low anemia rates do not even have the nutritional possibilities available in Argentina, which for decades was the world’s leading exporter of beef.

Red meat is an easy source of dietary iron, because just two small spoonfuls of low-quality ground beef three times a week provide enough iron for a child under the age of two, María Luisa Ageitos, an advisor to the United Nations children’s fund (UNICEF), explained to IPS.

But, she pointed out, it is also important to combine the consumption of red meat with foods that favour the absorption of iron, like fruits rich in vitamin C, the consumption of which is also decreasing among the poor in Argentina.

Besides the high rate of iron deficiency anemia among children under two, a growing number of pregnant women are suffering from the problem, and both are factors that stunt intellectual development in children, warned a study by the Centre of Studies on Child Nutrition (CESNI).

Pediatricians Alejandro O’Donnell and Sergio Britos, the authors of the CESNI report, which revealed the high proportion of children with iron deficiency, pointed out that the rates of anemia among pregnant women and children have shot up since the country’s severe economic crisis broke out in December 2001, in the fourth year of a major recession.

The cost of food rose 60 percent in 2002 on the previous year’s levels, and consumer prices went up 41 percent overall, while there was no corresponding increase in incomes, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses.

The rise in prices seen after the crash of the peso – which was triggered by the elimination in early 2002 of the currency board that pegged the local currency to the dollar -, added to an over 20 percent unemployment rate, drove up poverty and homelessness.

The poverty rate has soared from 33 percent of the population of 37 million in 1998 to 55 percent today, while 26 percent of the poor cannot even afford to cover their basic dietary needs.

Since the December 2001 economic and political debacle, malnutrition rates among children have increased from between 11 and 17 percent to the current 20 percent nationwide, and 40 percent in some northern provinces, according to the CESNI report.

But among the lowest-income sectors, as many as 70 percent of children under two show signs of iron deficiency anemia, pediatrician Silvia Baez, in charge of the Programa Nutrir (Nourish Programme) run by the non-governmental Red Solidaria (Network of Solidarity), pointed out to IPS.

The participants in the Red Solidaria plan, which provides assistance to thousands of children, are concerned because the problem is getting worse instead of better. ”For every three children that we help overcome anemia problems, we have five new admissions to the special dietary care programme,” said Baez.

”We see anemia as hidden malnutrition, because the kids can be within the normal weight range, but they have symptoms of iron deficiency, which in the long-run will cause learning difficulties, delays in school and problems in getting a job” once they reach adulthood, the doctor explained.

Baez said that before the crisis reached boiling-point in December 2001, between 30 and 40 percent of the children under five participating in the Programa Nutrir suffered some degree of iron deficiency anemia due to a shortage of red meat in their diets.

But that proportion rose to 70 percent after the socioeconomic collapse, she pointed out.

”The most dramatic aspect was reflected in the leap in anemia rates among children under two, schoolchildren, pregnant women and nursing mothers, some of whom are very malnourished,” said Baez.

She also pointed to the serious decline in the quality of the daily diet of many of Argentina’s children.

”Up to a year ago, although there were many families who had a hard time affording a diet that went beyond a piece of bread, polenta or pasta, school-age children could count on at least one square meal a day in the school cafeteria, which included meat, vegetables and fruit.”

The pediatrician underlined that variety in one’s diet is essential, since the iron provided by red meat is vital to a child’s intellectual development and learning ability, just as zinc – a micronutrient found in many fruits and vegetables – is key to physical growth.

However, as the crisis worsened, school cafeterias and the soup kitchens that mushroomed in community centres and churches around the country began to experience difficulties in terms of availability of food, with respect to both quantity and variety.

But the majority of those running the soup kitchens say they have been able to continue offering meals thanks to donations from private individuals, small businesses or large supermarket chains.

Nutritionists and doctors began to clamour for passage of a law that would make food products fortified with essential micronutrients available, such as iron-fortified flour, which has been produced for years in neighbouring Chile and other countries that have had great success in fighting anemia.

In Argentina, one brand of iron-fortified milk is available, but it is more expensive than other brands, and the taste is often rejected by children, because they are not used to it, said Baez.

However, if it were produced on a large-scale, children would get used to it, she added.

”The degree of absorption of the iron contained in cow’s milk is low with respect to the possibilities offered by red meat or iron-fortified flour. But Brazil has achieved good results with iron-fortified milk,” she noted.

Baez said that passage of a law for the production of fortified foods would ”at least improve the situation, because the problem is only getting worse.”