Damascus-SANA
The Ministries of Education and Health, in coordination with the Central Bureau of Statistics, set next Sunday as the date for the start of the survey to calibrate “iodine in children” in the first cycle schools from 6 to 12 years old in all governorates.
The Ministry of Education clarified in a circular to its directorates in the governorates, that SANA received a copy of it today, that the survey will be conducted during the period from Sunday, November 21 to the 30th, calling for facilitating the work of joint teams between school health departments and health directorates in the governorates.
In a statement to SANA, the Director of School Health in the Ministry of Education, Dr. Hatoon Al-Tawashi, confirmed that the survey includes 5320 students distributed in 266 schools randomly selected by the Central Bureau of Statistics between the countryside and the city in all governorates.
Al-Tawashi explained that the study is being conducted by a trained health team from health directorates and school health departments, pointing out that participation in the survey is voluntary, provided that parents’ consent is obtained for their children to participate in it, and that the information resulting from the survey will be used for nutritional studies and to develop appropriate strategies to reduce iodine deficiency in children and community members.
It is noteworthy that before the war, Syria was able to achieve advanced indicators at the level of the Eastern Mediterranean region in terms of families’ use of “iodized” salt, where the percentage reached 79.7 percent, noting that the international standard is 80 percent, but as a result of the war conditions, this percentage decreased significantly, according to official figures. This prompted the Ministry of Health to launch a national study in 2015 that showed that only 38 percent of Syrian families use iodized salt.
