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Lives on the line

For the 12 countries listed below, sufficient information is available to estimate actual and potential numbers of lives saved by vitamin A supplementation.

These estimates assume that child mortality can be reduced by 23% in populations with xerophthalmia or other eye signs of vitamin A deficiency. This was the figure agreed by a United Nations expert committee after reviewing all of the vitamin A intervention studies so far undertaken.*

The 23% figure is likely to prove a conservative estimate. All the evidence now suggests that vitamin A supplementation can significantly reduce mortality even among children with mild deficiency and little or no xerophthalmia. Dr. Alfred Sommer, who led the research which linked vitamin A deficiency to higher child death rates (see article page 23), believes that supplementation could reduce child deaths by one third in many countries. Careful monitoring of large-scale interventions is now needed to quantify and confirm this effect.

* G. H.Beaton and others, Effectiveness of vitamin A supplementation in the control of young child morbidity and mortality in developing countries, ACC/SCN, Nutrition policy discussion papers no. 13, 1993.

The lives saved ... and the lives that could be saved

        
         % of young
	children in		Extra lives
         risk areas              that could
          receiving     Lives     have been
        supplements     saved      saved in
               1994      1994         1994*
-------------------------------------------
India            60    220000      145400
Bangladesh       94     70500        4500
Nepal            65      9800        5300
Brazil           59      9700        6800
Viet Nam         95      7800         450
Malawi           70      5000        2100
Zambia           60      4200        2800
Burkina Faso     30      2700        6300
Niger            24      2100        6700
Myanmar           6      1000       15700
Haiti            25       670        2000
Cambodia          5       410        7700

Source: Calculated from data supplied by UNICEF field offices.

White patches in the eye indicate severe vitamin A deficiency. But the threat to health and life begins long before the deficiency becomes visible.	Millions of young children worldwide are now receiving vitamin A supplements. The vitamin capsules cost approximately 2 cents each.