NEW DELHI: If a recent study by the department of human nutrition, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) is any indication, goitre may be on its way out among children in Delhi.

total of 7,009 school children in the 6-11 years age group in 30 schools, were screened for the disease, and the prevalence of goitre was found to be 6.2%. A similar study conducted in 1980 had revealed an incidence rate of 52%.

During the eighties, the city was regarded as an iodine-deficiency endemic area. Even as recently as in 1995, its prevalence rate was 8.6%.

Goitre is an enlargement of the thyroid gland which is situated in front of the throat below the Adam's Apple.

The enlargement is caused by a deficiency of iodine, an element without which the gland loses its ability to secrete the two hormones it is supposed to manufacture and release into the body.

In a futile effort to meet the body's needs, and in response to a regulatory hormone secreted from the brain, the cells enlarge in size, causing goitre.

Though the results of the study were favourable, Dr Umesh Kapil, professor of the department of human nutrition, under whom the study was conducted, says: "There was for a while, a ban on the sale of non-iodised salt, which definitely went a long way in bringing about this positive change in the goitre scenario. But the nationwide ban was lifted in 2000 by the NDA government. Unless that is reversed, these developments might just prove to be short-lived because awareness levels are still not very good."

In fact, even after the ban was imposed in Delhi in 1989, studies had shown that 65% of urban slum households, 43% or rural households and 17% of urban households were using salt with less than the recommended iodine content of 15 parts per million (ppm).

Despite the improvement in the goitre incidence, the present study too found that only 63.1% of Delhiites were consuming salt with the stipulated level of iodine.

"In order to really do away with iodine deficiency disorders, there is a need for further strengthening the system of monitoring the quality of iodised salt provided to the people," Dr Kapil added.