Oman has no cases of Iodine Deficiency Disorders (IDD), according to a national survey conducted last year by the Ministry of Health (MoH) to assess population iodine status.

Dr Samia al Ghannami, Director General of Nutrition, MoH, presented the survey results during the opening session of the Iodine Global Network's annual meeting held on Wednesday (1 April) in Muscat. She said that the country was able to achieve this due to sustained efforts by the government.

“An earlier survey conducted in 1993 among Omani schoolchildren showed that more than 50 per cent had low iodine levels. Seeing this, the government worked closely with concerned authorities to fortify food and provided iodized salt to control IDD in the country,” she said. The 2014 survey was carried out on a sample of 2,560 schoolchildren aged between six and 12 years, whose iodine nutrition was assessed on the basis of the concentration of iodine in urine.

Commending MoH on its success, Professor Michael Zimmermann, Chair of the Iodine Global Network, said that the next goal should be to increase the intake of iodine among pregnant women. “It would be safe to say that Oman is iodine sufficient, but it needs to be regularly monitored so that the authorities maintain the success levels. The median UIC (urinary iodine concentration) for Oman is 195 mcg/L, which is good. Another task is to reduce salt intake in the population to prevent non-communicable diseases such as hypertension and heart failure etc.”

Regarding reduction of salt intake, Dr Samia said that, “The food and nutrition department is now working at different levels with health authorities to find gaps in the dietary habits of people and plug them. “For example, we have reduced the salt used in breads made locally by ten per cent and plan to cut it down by 30 per cent in three years.”

Dr Samia further said, “Better and a closer relation with the private sector is required to ensure quality control.”