There are few health problems that affect billions of people at any given time. There are even fewer that could be reduced substantially through pretty cheap interventions.
Anemia is one of them. Estimates suggest that one in four people globally has anemia; that’s two billion people in total. 1 Almost one in three women and almost 40% of all children suffer from it.
While anemia is much more common in poorer countries, it’s also a significant problem in rich ones. I have family members and friends who have struggled with it for a long time. And I probably know many more who have it but are undiagnosed.
One of the reasons why anemia is so overlooked is that its symptoms are often subtle: in most cases, it’s fatigue and weakness. These symptoms can be common for various reasons, making them harder to attribute to a specific condition. Even in children, when anemia can lead to delays in cognitive and physical development and poor concentration, the signs are not obvious or can’t be linked directly to micronutrient deficiencies.
Severe anemia can lead to much more drastic outcomes, though. Anemia during pregnancy can significantly increase the risks of low birthweight babies and, therefore, the risk of infant mortality. 2 It also increases the risk of maternal mortality , especially if there is a lot of blood loss during childbirth. 3 And anemia in pregnant women is extremely common, especially in lower-income countries. You can see this in the map: in some of the poorest countries, more than half of pregnant women are anemic.