The United Nations children's agency is calling for greater international support to help protect Burma's children and pregnant women against anemia and other forms of malnutrition.
In a statement released Wednesday, UNICEF said it is currently working with rural health services to provide around 70-million iron tablets for 350,000 pregnant women in Burma. And it has also provided more than 200,000 bottles of iron syrup for children in targeted areas.
But it says it needs additional funding to help prevent iron deficiency throughout the country.
The agency says anemic mothers die more often during childbirth, while anemic children are less mentally agile and are more vulnerable to debilitating and potentially deadly diseases.
It says insufficient consumption of iron-rich foods and parasitic infections are both major causes of anemia in Burma.
