Why Vitamin A.
Vitamin A is essential to immune function especially in children under five who are most vulnerable to common infections and diseases. Together with health advocates worldwide, distribution of vitamin A has helped reduce the number of child deaths to less than 10 million annually for the first time on record.
With an estimated 190 million children under five suffering from vitamin A deficiency (VAD) worldwide, the rate of infants and children contracting such common diseases as measles, malaria, diarrhea and acute respiratory tract infections is dangerously high. Battling these illnesses with weakened immune systems, a consequence of VAD, results in too many young lives cut short.
A proven solution to VAD is at our fingertips. Vitamin A supplementation is simple, cost-effective, and has the single greatest potential to improve global health. Unlike other treatments, one high-dose vitamin A capsule can provide one child with sufficient vitamin A for six months. This alone reduces the risk of under-five child mortality by 23%. It’s also a proven cure for one of the most severe effects of VAD, xerophthalmia, a disorder of the eye that can lead to permanent blindness.
Learn more >> About our international vitamin A campaign, Operation 20/20
Learn more >> Vitamin A Supplementation: A Decade of Progress
Facts & Figures
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Vitamin A Deficiency:
A Public Health
Problem
In developed countries, our most basic foods have been fortified with essential vitamins and minerals for more than 50 years. While public health has increased, public awareness of how critical vitamin A is to our basic well-being has decreased.
Without these commonly fortified foods, would you get enough vitamin A?
- Milk
- Sugar
- Cereals
- Margarine
- Oils
- Instant noodles
* children under five
** percentage of the developing world’s children under five who are deficient in vitamin A
Source: UNICEF/MI/WHO, Investing in the Future: A United Call to Action on Vitamin and Mineral Deficiencies, 2009.