In three separate trials of children hospitalized with measels -- one as early as 1932 -- deaths among children given high-dose vitamin A supplements were significantly lower than among children not supplemented. The consistent results suggest that a change in Vitamin A status can rapidly alter basic physiological funcitons to concerned with cellular repair and resistance to infection, thereby saving lives.

Source: Alfred Sommer and Keith West jr. Vitamin A Deficiency: Health, survival and vision.