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Treatment

For treating iron deficiency anemia, The George Foundation program provided the clinics special iron pills. These pills contain ferrous succinate, (the best absorbed form of iron as according to recent studies) that can quickly correct the anemia. Many health programs use an inexpensive variety of iron pills containing ferrous fumarate that is not easily and expeditiously absorbed by the body. The ferrous succinate pills that The George Foundation provided contain 75 mg of iron plus Vitamin C, which increases the absorption by up to 400%.

For treating lead poisoning, The George Foundation program provided the clinics doses of the oral chelator meso 2,3-dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA); however, this could not be used pending approval by the Drug Control Agency in India. This chelator has been used all over the world for many years, and in the U.S. under the name Succimer. The patients simply take the pills twice daily for 19 days. There is no need for clinical visits during the 19 days. The chelator only removes heavy metals such as lead and mercury from the body, leaving behind the essential minerals like calcium, iron, and magnesium. The more traditional method of treatment practiced in most lead programs is to use a very painful chelator drip agent EDTA to chelate the lead from the body. This is expensive because it requires 5 days of hospital treatment consisting of four hours of drips per day. This treatment also results in the removal of essential minerals from the body, such as calcium and magnesium.

While test readings above 10 mcg/dL indicate elevated levels of lead, treatment with oral chelator will be limited to only those above 40 mcg/dL. This is so because this type of medical intervention is suggested only when toxicity reaches dangerous levels. Emphasis will always be on prevention/containment.