NEURAL TUBE DEFECTS AND MICRONUTRIENTS DEFICIENCY PREVALENCE IN GEORGIA.

Until 2015, systematic statistical data on micronutrient deficiency was not available in Georgia, to provide developing national strategy. In the same year, the National Centre for Disease Control and Public Health of Georgia (NCDC) in collaboration with the USA CDC launched the project "Strengthening surveillance of micronutrient deficiency in Georgia". In 2015 we did choose sentinel surveillance approach. For setting nutrition surveillance system 8 sentinel sites (2 sites in each region/children and pregnant health facilities) in four regions of Georgia (Tbilisi, Kakheti, Achara, and Samegrelo) were selected, using the criteria of geographical, social, ethnical, urban/rural, and religion. Also, existing information about malnutrition and dietary habits from the above mentioned regions. The project protocols was approved by the Institutional review board (IRB) at the NCDC and by the Research Review Committee and Ethical review committee of the US CDC. As a result of surveillance system functioning (2016-2019) we reviled that, about 36% out of 1021 studied children U2 (12-23 months) were anemic, 74% of them were identified as iron deficient. Hemoglobin was tested among 963 pregnant women and about 21% of them were found anemic, 57% were iron deficient, and 28% tested positive for folate deficiency. Neural tube defects (NTDs) prevalence per 1000 live births registered in sentinel sites was high 3.7. Our results show that anemia and iron deficiency are prevalent among both pregnant women and children of the specified age group in Georgia. Additionally, folate deficiency was quite common during the1st trimester of pregnancy. Our findings will inform public health policy decision makers to take relevant decisions on required interventions, such as health education, distribution of relevant supplements, and food fortification.