Endemic goitre in the Sudan

The objectives of this study were to map the prevalence of goiter in Sudan and to study the etiological factors involved. A further objective was to explore the use of serum thyroglobulin (Tg) level in the assessment of endemic goitre. The endemicity of goitre in Sudan was firstly reported by Woodman in 1952. Although in the Sudan IDD control programmes and support for the universal salt iodization strategy began in the mid 1970s, no progress in implementation of the strategy was noted until 2006. Indeed, most of the iodine supplementation programmes, if not all, have now ceased to exist. In 2006 the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) estimated that only 1% of all Sudanese households had access to iodized salt. The survey took place in the period from June to November 2006. The survey covered nine cities including Nyala and Elfasher (Western part), Wau (in The South), Atbara and Dongula (in the North), Dmazine (South East), Port Sudan (Eastern part), Kosti and Khartoum (in the Centre). Khartoum was divided into three different cities Khartoum, Khartoum North and Omdurman. The study included 6181 male and female schoolchildren at the age of 6-12 years old.