NAFDAC, UNICEF, Benue team up to tackle goitre

01.02.2008

A joint action committee involving Regulatory Officers of National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), UNICEF Nutrition Officers and Benue State Government Officials, has been inaugurated to tackle the endemic problem of goitre and other related cases of Iodine Deficiency Disorders (IDD) in the state.

With over a million cases of people afflicted with goitre disease in Benue State, Governor Gabriel Suswam approached NAFDAC and UNICEF to join forces together towards eradicating the menace in the state.

The committee which was inaugurated during the flag-off of “NAFDAC-UNICEF joint sensitisation Workshop in Makurdi, was saddled with the first major task of drawing a blue-print for the establishment of salt refining and packaging industry in the state within the next 3 months.

Inaugurating the committee, Governor Suswam said the state government would mop up the local non-iodized salt produced in Logo and Ukum local government areas as raw materials for the proposed salt refinery.

He explained that it was not the intention of the government to dispossess local salt producing communities of their valuable source of income, but to help them refine the salt before consumption or sale to the general public.