Survey reveals almost half of Fiji's population is estimated to have anaemia - Akbar

The National Nutrition Survey of 2016 has revealed that almost half of Fiji’s population is estimated to have anaemia.

Minister for Health Rosy Akbar revealed this when answering FijiFirst MP Netani Rika’s question on the challenges faced by the Ministry in food and nutrition security.

Akbar says nutrition deficiency is a challenge for the Ministry and the Government as a whole.

She adds that in Fiji, the burden of malnutrition, underweight, overweight and micronutrient deficiency exists and this is occurring in households with the most vulnerable, affecting children and elderly.

Akbar stated that according to the National Nutrition Survey in 2016, 4.8% of children under five years old, and 7.2% of those between 15 to 17 years old are found to be overweight.

The statistics also revealed that 31.4% of the adult population are overweight while 31.7% are obese.

Akbar says half of Fiji’s population is at a higher risk of suffering from some form of non‑communicable diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, cardiac diseases and cancer.

She highlighted that according to that survey woman of childbearing age have 19.7% of iron deficiency, 18.3 % of vitamin A deficiency and 19% of zinc deficiency.

Akbar adds that the most vulnerable people with lower agricultural output means lower incomes and under this conditions the poorest people who already use most of their income on food, sacrifice additional income and assets to meet the nutritional requirements.

National Federation Party leader, Biman Prasad asked Akbar to tell parliament that it is the high cost of living and prices of many of those nutritional items that affect the nutrition security of people especially the low-income earners.

Akbar says the increase in the cost of living is basically inflation and the inflation is driven more so by external factors rather than the domestic policies.

She told parliament to promote healthy living by growing food locally and further stated that the Government has put in a lot of measures to cope with the rise of inflation especially in terms of food prices.