Response to “Efficacy of oral iron therapy in geophagic women with iron deficiency anaemia residing in Botshabelo, South Africa”

Abstract

We read the recent paper by Mogongoa1 on efficacy of oral iron therapy in geophagic women with interest. The author must be congratulated on a detailed study. In summary, the study divided 84 geophagic women with iron deficiency anaemia into two groups, one which stopped geophagia, and one which continued with geophagia, while receiving oral iron supplements. After ten weeks of gradually escalating doses of oral iron the participants’ average iron status and haemoglobin had not improved significantly. Response to iron therapy was defined as a rise of the haemoglobin concentration by 2 g/dL within three weeks.2 In the group that had stopped geophagia 9.3% (4/43) participants had an increase of 2 g/dL in haemoglobin over the ten weeks, while in the group that continued with geophagia only one participant (2.9% = 1/35) had a similar improvement. The author concluded that “oral iron therapy was not effective in geophagia cases of iron deficiency anaemia” in the abstract and “in this study oral iron therapy was not effective for the correction of iron deficiency anaemia in geophagic Botshabelo females” in the conclusions. We wish to point out that this conclusion might not be entirely correct.