Vitamin A Combats Infant Mortality

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- A single dose of vitamin A at birth could be the difference between life and death for some newborns.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Md., studied 15,937 newborns from rural communities in Bangladesh, where over 90 percent of babies are born at home. Half of the newborns were randomly selected to orally receive a 50,000 IU (international units) of vitamin A, while the other half received a placebo. The mortality rate for the group who received the dose of vitamin A was 38.5 deaths per 1,000 births, while the mortality rate for the group who received the placebo was 45.1 deaths per 1,000 births.

Because childhood mortality is greatest during the first few months of life, a single dose of vitamin A administered by mouth to a newborn child can save the lives of an additional 300,000 children in Asia every year, Alfred Sommer, M.D., MHS, professor and dean emeritus of the Bloomberg School of Public Health, was quoted as saying.

Its been known vitamin A can reduce mortality in children over six months of age. Currently, a 200,000 IU dose of vitamin A is recommended semi-annually for children six months to five years of age.

SOURCE: Pediatrics, 2008;122:e242-e250

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