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Vitamin A Deficiency

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Nutrition and Health in Developing Countries

Part of the book series: Nutrition ◊ and ◊ Health ((NH))

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Abstract

Vitamin A deficiency affects up to 250 million children (1), is responsible for over a million child deaths annually, and is the leading cause of preventable pediatric blindness in the developing world (2). It is an increasingly recognized problem among rural women in many countries and may be a major underlying cause of maternal mortality (3). International recognition of its public health importance (4) and emphasis on its control (5) has brought about substantial political (6–7) and resource commitments, coupled with increased program action (8–12) that provides global momentum to control this nutritional scourge. In recent years, there appears to have been a general decline in the prevalence of severe vitamin A deficiency (xerophthalmia) (13), which may reflect combined effects of effective programming and socio-economic development. At the same time, sensitive assessment tools have revealed the enormous magnitude of subclinical vitamin A deficiency over much of the developing world (1), leaving a clear public-health mandate for its prevention (13).

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Authors
  1. Keith P. . West Jr.
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  2. Ian Darnton-Hill
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ophthalmology, Division of Ocular Immunology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Richard D. Semba MD, MPH

  2. Helen Keller International — Regional Headquarters, Jakarta, Indonesia

    Martin W. Bloem MD, PhD

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West, K.P..., Darnton-Hill, I. (2001). Vitamin A Deficiency. In: Semba, R.D., Bloem, M.W. (eds) Nutrition and Health in Developing Countries. Nutrition ◊ and ◊ Health. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-225-8_11

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