According to data from a report released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in January 2004, only 35 percent of Virginia women of childbearing age take a vitamin pill that contains
folic acid. Folic acid can help reduce the risk for
spina bifida and anencephaly, the two most common neural tube birth defects, by as much as 70 percent.
The effectiveness of folic acid in reducing these birth defects was proven in another CDC report, which showed that spina bifida and anencephaly have declined in the United States since cereal manufactures began in January 1998 to fortify breakfast cereals with folic acid. The report, published in May 2004, used data from October 1998-December 1999 that showed a decline in spina bifida cases of 31 percent and a decline in anencephaly of 16 percent during that period.
“The Virginia Department of Health has worked with the March of Dimes since 1999 to promote the consumption of folic acid,” said State Health Commissioner Robert B. Stroube, M.D., M.P.H. “To help prevent a spine and brain neural tube defect, a woman of childbearing age should take 400 micrograms of the B vitamin folic acid everyday.”
The Virginia Department of Health has launched a campaign urging women age 18-44 to take 400 micrograms of the B vitamin folic acid every day to help prevent certain birth defects, such as spina bifida and anencephaly, a major brain defect.
In June, television stations in Bristol, Charlottesville, Harrisonburg, Lynchburg, and Richmond will broadcast a public service announcement featuring Virginia first lady Lisa Collis urging women to take folic acid to prevent birth defects.
“According to the CDC, there are three ways women can get enough folic acid to prevent spina bifida and anencephaly,” said Donna T. Seward, C.H.E., director of Virginia Department of Health’s Division of WIC and Community Nutrition Services. “Women can take a multivitamin or folic acid supplement containing 400 micrograms of folic acid daily, eat a fortified breakfast cereal daily that contains 100 percent of the daily value of folic acid, and increase consumption of foods fortified with folic acid. These include enriched cereal, bread, rice, pasta, and other grain products. They also can eat a varied diet including foods that contain folate, such as 100 percent orange juice, dried beans, lentils, spinach, asparagus and leafy green vegetables.”
“A three month supply of a 400-microgram folic acid supplement averages about $2.49. The average lifetime cost for infants born with severe spina bifida can exceed $1 million according to the CDC,” Mrs. Seward states. “The use of a supplement and eating a healthy diet with foods high in folate has shown to be a simple and inexpensive way to reduce the neural tube birth defects anencephaly and spina bifida.”