The Ghana News Agency reports that ICCIDD Board member, Dr. Ebinezer Asibey of the University of Ghana, on July 2, presented a study he'd done with the Deputy Director of Public Health assessing the impact of iodized salt in several remote regions. Inadequately iodized salt is hampering achievement of sustainability, but incidence of such indicators as goiter have shown reductions form 56.4% to 10.6% over the past 13 years.

"This was contained in a study carried out by Mr. J.G.A. Armah, Deputy Director of Public Health, and Professor E. Asibey, Senior Lecturer in the Nutrition Department of the University of Ghana, Legon, and sponsored by UNICEF to assess the Biological impact of iodized salt consumption in the Bongo District of the Upper East Region and the Jirapa District of the Upper West Region.

"Iodine Deficiency Disorders could have been reduced considerably by the introduction of the Universal Salt Iodization if the salt sold in the market was adequately iodized, the report noted.

"It indicated that even though more that 80 per cent of the people consumed iodized salt, only 38.5 per cent and 36.3 per cent of households in Jirapa and Bongo Districts respectively, consumed adequate iodized salt, falling far short of the target of 90 per cent.

"Professor Asibey, Presenting the findings of the study in Bolgatanga on Thursday, said it showed that despite the inadequate iodization of salt, the incidence of some IDD related diseases like goitre had reduced from 56.4 per cent to 10.6 per cent in Jirapa and 56.5 to 18.2 in the Bongo District between 1994 and 2007."