Vitamin A Deficiency

Short Description
Vitamin A capsules have been widely distributed through. NIDs. In sub-Saharan Africa, … Several countries are fortifying staple foods with vitamin A. …

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Content
Vitamin A
Deficiency
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
80
50
66
34
35
Sub-Saharan Africa 70
East Asia/Pacific
(excluding China)
South Asia
Latin America/
Caribbean
Developing countries
(excluding China)
Least developed
countries
*Regional averages for the Middle East and North Africa and for CEE/CIS were not calculated because the
available country data cover less than half of each region’s births.
Source: UNICEF, 2001.
Goal
Elimination of vitamin A deficiency
Result
Most children in more than 40 countries are
receiving at least one vitamin A supplement
yearly, a remarkable achievement as only a
handful of countries were reaching children
with one vitamin A supplement in the mid-
1990s. Between 1998 and 2000, UNICEF
estimates that about 1 million child deaths
may have been prevented through vitamin A
supplementation.
Issue
Lack of vitamin A - essential for the functioning
of the immune system - can lead to
irreversible blindness. But before that, a child
deficient in vitamin A faces a 25 per cent
greater risk of dying from common ailments,
such as measles, malaria or diarrhoea.
Delivery of two high-dose vitamin A capsules
a year to children under five prevents…