While millions of people in many parts of the world are dying from hunger each year, the effects of a lack of micronutrients may be less visible but are similarly devastating, recent UN reports show. The "hidden hunger", as Deputy Executive Director Kul C. Gautam of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) calls the vitamin and mineral deficiency, impairs a third of the world population, affecting especially the most vulnerable groups: the poor, women and young children. With effects such as anaemia, cretinism and blindness known for a long time, the "Vitamin and Mineral Deficiency--A Global Progress Report", published jointly by UNICEF and The Micronutrient Initiative, sheds new light on problems to which less attention has been given so far.

Vitamin A deficiency compromises the immune systems of approximately 40 per cent of children under five in the developing world, leading to 1 million deaths each year; iodine deficiency in pregnancy causes as many as 20 million babies a year to be born mentally impaired; and iron deficiency impairs intellectual development in young children and is lowering national IQs. Mr. Gautam said: "You may not feel it in the belly, but it strikes at the core of your health and vitality. It is especially damaging to human brain, learning ability and productivity."

Vitamin and mineral deficiency significantly debilitates the energies, intellects and economic prospects of nations, the UNICEF report states. Such is a problem not only in terms of individual human rights but also of the development of their entire countries, another UN report, "Nutrition for Improved Development Outcomes", published by the UN Standing Committee on Nutrition, points out. According to Mr. Gautam, the economic losses attributable to micronutrient deficiencies can be as high as 5 per cent of the gross domestic product of some countries.

This condition is of particular concern, as these problems can be solved easily and inexpensively, both reports state. "Resources and technology to bring vitamin and mineral deficiencies under control do exist", said Venkatesh Mannar, President of The Micronutrient Initiative. "What we need is the will, the effort and the action to fix this problem." Methods that have been successful in industrialized nations include food fortification, addition of essential vitamins and minerals to regularly consumed foods, and supplementation in the form of low-cost tables, capsules and syrups, specifically addressing children and young women.

With the overall climate of global economic growth, some progress in improving nutrition among the world's poor has indeed been made, yet in many countries improvements are lagging behind the overall economic growth. In sub-Saharan Africa, the nutrition indicators are even moving in the wrong direction. However, with the enormous adverse impact of vitamin and mineral deficiencies on individuals and entire societies, improvements have enormous potential of fostering development in the affected countries. UN Under-Secretary-General for Management Catherine Bertini, who presented the Standing Committee's report to the press, said there must be a much greater capacity on the part of the nutrition community to aggressively impact public policy, "because adequate nutrition for all will have the single most important impact on the overall development of people throughout the world".