Neonatal hypothyroidism in India.

Nutritional iodine deficiency and endemic goiter are widely prevalent in developing countries, affecting an estimated 1 billion people. Recent studies in India, using radioimmunoassay methods, have shown that the incidence of neonatal hypothyroidism in endemic goiter regions is more than a hundredfold higher than the incidence in nonendemic regions. This knowledge has given a new momentum to the iodine prophylactic program in the country, resulting in the protection of hundreds of thousands of newborns from mental retardation.