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Safety of Interventions to Reduce Nutritional Anemia

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Nutritional Anemia

Part of the book series: Nutrition and Health ((NH))

Abstract

Iron deficiency is estimated to cause more ill health and disability worldwide than any other nutrient deficiency. This underpins a public health drive to combat iron deficiency by interventions on multiple fronts. Many interventions such as increasing dietary diversity, introducing biofortified crops, or improving sanitation and hygiene have no safety concerns, but can have limited efficacy. Direct supplementation with iron in the form of tablets, syrups, or point-of-use micronutrient powders has greater efficacy, but has been associated with a range of adverse outcomes especially in the settings of poverty and poor hygiene where they are most needed. These adverse outcomes result from a battle for iron between humans and micro-organisms in which iron can enhance the virulence of numerous human pathogens. This chapter provides a high-level review of the existing evidence that iron interventions increase the likelihood of serious infections by bacteria, protozoa, viruses, or fungi, and whether they cause adverse perturbations of the gut microflora. We conclude that the evidence for possible harm is real, but that there are ways to ameliorate the risks, and that the benefits of iron interventions will generally outweigh any risks.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. MRC Unit The Gambia at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Banjul, The Gambia

    Andrew M. Prentice & Carla Cerami

  2. Training and Research Unit of Excellence (TRUE), Blantyre, Malawi

    Martin N. Mwangi

  3. School of Public Health and Family Medicine, College of Medicine, Kamuzu University of Health Sciences (KUHES), Blantyre, Malawi

    Martin N. Mwangi

  4. Division of Human Nutrition and Health, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    Hans Verhoef

Authors
  1. Andrew M. Prentice
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  2. Carla Cerami
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  3. Martin N. Mwangi
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  4. Hans Verhoef
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Correspondence to Andrew M. Prentice .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Human Nutrition, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Crystal D. Karakochuk

  2. Institute of Food Nutrition and Health, ETH Zurich, Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland

    Michael B. Zimmermann

  3. Department of Health, University of Applied Sciences of South Switzerland (SUPSI) and Swiss Distance University of Applied Sciences (FFHS), Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland

    Diego Moretti

  4. International Health, Sight and Life Foundation and Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Basel, Switzerland

    Klaus Kraemer

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Prentice, A.M., Cerami, C., Mwangi, M.N., Verhoef, H. (2022). Safety of Interventions to Reduce Nutritional Anemia. In: Karakochuk, C.D., Zimmermann, M.B., Moretti, D., Kraemer, K. (eds) Nutritional Anemia. Nutrition and Health. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-14521-6_21

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-14521-6_21

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