The challenge
Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is the leading cause of preventable blindness in children and increases the risk of disease and death from severe infections. In pregnant women VAD causes night blindness and may increase the risk of maternal mortality.
Vitamin A deficiency is a public health problem in more than half of all countries, especially in Africa and South-East Asia, hitting hardest young children and pregnant women in low-income countries.
Crucial for maternal and child survival, supplying adequate vitamin A in high-risk areas can significantly reduce mortality. Conversely, its absence causes a needlessly high risk of disease and death
- For children, lack of vitamin A causes severe visual impairment and blindness, and significantly increases the risk of severe illness, and even death, from such common childhood infections as diarrhoeal disease and measles.
- For pregnant women in high-risk areas, vitamin A deficiency occurs especially during the last trimester when demand by both the unborn child and the mother is highest. The mother’s deficiency is demonstrated by the high prevalence of night blindness during this period. The impact of VAD on mother-to-child HIV transmission needs further investigation.
- Partnerships for progress
In 1998 WHO and its partners – UNICEF, the Canadian International Development Agency, the United States Agency for International Development and the Micronutrient Initiative – launched the Vitamin A Global Initiative. In addition, over the past few years, WHO, UNICEF and others have provided support to countries in delivering vitamin A supplements. Linked to sick-child visits and national poliomylitis immunization days, these supplements have averted an estimated 1.25 million deaths since 1998 in 40 countries.