 | The Data at a Glance ~127 million preschool children have vitamin A deficiency worldwide. ~4.4 million have xerophthalmia (the major cause of blindness in children) > 7.2 million women in the developing world are vitamin A deficient; another 13.6 million have low VA status. > 6 million women annually develop night blindness during pregnancy. |
Vitamin A deficiency remains a serious public health problem in developing countries, despite the gains of the past few decades to identify and supplement at-risk populations. Estimating the extent and severity of vitamin A deficiency and its related disorders in vulnerable populations is a critical step in the effort to mobilize resources for prevention and treatment. Pre-school aged children and women during pregnancy or lactation tend to suffer the most widespread and severe effects of deficiencies in vitamin A and other micronutrients. Reliable and updated prevalence data on mothers and children are therefore routinely needed to inform prevention policies and programs. CHN faculty Keith West, Jr., DrPH , Amy Rice, PhD , and Jonathan Sugimoto, MHS, compiled the following tables on the global burden of vitamin A deficiency of preschool aged children and pregnant women based on prevalence survey reports and population-based research studies, both published and unpublished, as well as databases maintained by the World Health Organization (WHO), Geneva, Switzerland, and the Micronutrient Initiative (MI), Ottawa, Canada. Combining prevalence estimates with age and life-stage specific population data has provided the basis for calculating numbers of affected individuals by country and region of the world.
These tables provide estimates of the burden of vitamin A deficiency and its eye disease, xeropthalmia, in 191 countries within each of six designated WHO regions: Africa, Eastern Mediterranean, South Asia, Western Pacific, Region of the Americas and Europe.
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